From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat Sep 19 2009 - 07:21:29 EDT
FEATURE-Libya post-sanctions boom makes it African eldorado
Sep 19, 2009 1:17pm GMT
* Libya draws migrants as economy revives
* Construction boom attracts foreign workers
* Strains appear between newcomers and Libyans
By Tom Pfeiffer
TRIPOLI, Sept 19 (Reuters) - As Libya's economy re-awakens after years of
sanctions, the desert country has become a magnet for migrant workers who
risk arrest and intimidation for a salary that keeps families back home out
of poverty.
Libya's government is using fast-growing energy revenues to rebuild decrepit
infrastructure and is giving a growing role to the private sector, turning
Tripoli into a building site for hotels, clinics, schools and apartment
blocks.
With an estimated three quarters of Libyans on the state payroll, most
prefer to leave the new jobs to foreigners.
The north African country has up to 2 million immigrants compared to a local
population of around 6 million, according to government reports cited by the
U.S. State Department.
The government has said it aims to recruit 1 million more foreign workers
over five years, including Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans, to narrow a deficit
of skills and labour.
Strains are already appearing between the newcomers and a local population
struggling to come to terms with rapid change after decades of isolation.
On a hot evening in the Libyan capital, tempers boil over as a crowd of
migrant workers wait outside a bank to send money home to relatives. They
surge forward and cries ring out as men wielding sticks push them back and
slam shut the bank's doors.
"I'll come back tomorrow. It can get dangerous on the streets at night,"
said factory worker Lee, who makes window frames to support a wife and two
children in the Philippines.
He says he earns $500 a month, compared to $300 back home. He is fed and has
free accommodation but says the air in his shared dormitory is stifling and
he cannot sleep.
After seven months, he is unimpressed with the locals.
"People here don't see us as their equals because we look foreign and some
of us are Christians," he said. "Children sometimes throw stones when my
back is turned."
"They hate us," said Michael Barhe, an Ethiopian. "If they see you drink
water at Ramadan, they will stab you. A Libyan tried to stab me and I ran
away."
INDECISION
The end of sanctions has let loose an entrepreneurial spirit in Tripoli that
lacked an outlet when sanctions forbade imports of most consumer goods.
Celebrations this month marking 40 years since Muammar Gaddafi's coup
vaunted Libya's role as a gateway to Africa and Gaddafi has called for free
movement of Africans as part of his dream of a United States of Africa.
But his government seems unable to decide whether to keep its migrants and
legalise their status or punish and expel them.
Periodic crackdowns on those lacking official papers and threats of mass
deportations have come to little.
Migrants are still arriving from across the Sahara to escape escape poverty
or conflict. Some report seeing bodies of migrants who fell from crowded
trucks deep in the desert.
As long as Libyans are unwilling to mix and lay concrete, cook in hotels or
mow their lawns, the migrants appear too important to lose.
"The government is blaming Libyans for not employing Libyans and is even
encouraging Egyptians to go home. The problem is, no Libyan is willing to
get out of bed for less than 20 dinars," one Libyan businessman said on
condition of anonymity.
LEGAL LIMBO
Tripoli's streets are quiet during the hottest hours of the day as residents
rest during the holy Ramadan month of fasting.
Sub-Saharan migrants wait with their tools in the shadows of street
hoardings or under bridges for piecemeal labouring work.
Yetemgeta Mulu, 32, has spent a year in Libya building a factory on the
outskirts of Tripoli. "We do everything by hand, even carrying big steel
girders. There are no machines," he said. "My friend broke his leg but he
got no help and had to find treatment himself."
The migrants live in a permanent legal limbo. Even those who sweep the
streets and wear a uniform often lack the paperwork that could keep them out
of jail.
"If you occupy a formal position here, it doesn't necessarily mean you have
a regular contract," said Laurence Hart, chief of mission at United Nations
migration body IOM.
Some migrants are intent on longer journeys to Europe and stay only to earn
money to pay traffickers for passage to Italy.
The boats are often overcrowded and the migrants risk drowning or being
thrown into prison, mistreated and forced to pay a bribe to leave, according
to those who have attempted the journey.
Today, the chance of making it to Italy has dwindled after Italy and Libya
stepped up cooperation and coastguard patrols.
The number who made it to Italy alive between May and mid-August was 860,
compared to more than 10,000 in the same period last year, according to the
U.N. refugee agency.
Migrants say the risks have grown, and so have prices. A place on a boat
cost $1,400 four months ago. It has now risen to $1,800.
Mulu's two attempts landed him in prison and he has resolved to return to
Ethiopia through a voluntary return programme.
"There is no way of changing your way of life in Ethiopia," he said. "But I
see no alternative but to go home. At least my family will be happy to see
me and maybe we will have better luck now." (Additional reporting by Daniel
Flynn in Rome; Editing by Giles Elgood)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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