Just as during the civil war that ravaged their country in 1975-1990, hundreds of Lebanese families are turning to neighboring Cyprus to escape the hardships of daily life in their hometowns.
The short-haul flight from Beirut to Larnaca is only 25 minutes away from Lebanon. For months, they have been busy transporting goods in Lebanon. For them, this country with severe shortages hit by the crisis has become uninhabitable.
“I had to leave my country and my parents to try to fight for a future for my children,” said 30-year-old Nanor Abachian, as she and her husband, their two children and seven heavy suitcases Come out from the airport on the south coast of the island.
They left a bankrupt country, where 22-hour power outages have become the norm, and daily necessities from fuel and natural gas to medicines and bread are in short supply.
Since the beginning of the crisis in 2019, thousands of Lebanese have emigrated, many of whom have moved to Cyprus. There is no official data on the numbers, especially because many Lebanese have a second passport.
Claude el-Hajal, Lebanon’s ambassador to Cyprus, stated that the number of families resettled on the island has “significantly increased”, especially since the devastating explosion in Beirut’s port on August 4, 2020 that caused more than 200 people Since death.
Hajal said that in the 1980s, when the civil war was at its height, about 100,000 Lebanese families fled to Cyprus. However, many people returned after the conflict.
During the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanese Shia Hezbollah, Cyprus was the base for the evacuation of nearly 60,000 civilians from Lebanon.
‘no future’
Abachian said that “insecurity” was their main motivation for fleeing abroad. “We live in the unknown… My child has no future in Lebanon,” she said.
Once in Larnaca, she lived with her family at a friend’s house, waiting to rent an apartment near the school where the children were studying.
George Obeid, in his forties, also chose Cyprus for his children’s education.
“There is no hope for the Lebanese school year,” he said, noting that power outages and fuel shortages severely affected school services and activities.
“We are also worried about our safety,” he added, worrying about rising crime rates due to widespread poverty and despair.
According to United Nations data, 78% of Lebanese now live below the poverty line-up from less than 30% before 2019.
In Nicosia, the French Cypriot school, which has courses similar to those of several French schools in Lebanon, received approximately 250 applications from newly arrived Lebanese.
Companies and investors
Cyprus is also attracting Lebanese companies and investors.
According to Constantinos Karageorgis, a senior official of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the fast-track procedure for establishing foreign companies on the island launched in October last year has resulted in 7 Lebanese companies being accompanied by their families. , Nearly 200 employees were relocated.
Ambassador Hajal said that with this new mechanism, “the procedure now takes 10 to 15 days instead of two to three months”.
For Lebanese, another attractive area is real estate.
Georges Chahwan, a Lebanese businessman who owns dozens of real estate projects in Cyprus, stated that he “sold nearly 400 apartments to Lebanese between 2016 and 2021… of which 100 in the past six months”.
He explained that this holiday island is a member of the European Union and provides permanent residency for a certain degree of real estate investment.
At the same time, the Bank of Cyprus provides loans to Lebanese who pay wages in U.S. dollars.
“Since 1975, Cyprus has been a safe haven for Lebanese,” Chawan said. “The island is only a stone’s throw away from Lebanon. It is stable and safe… They think this is their second hometown.”
