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also concerned at the destruction of agro-processing factories and plants. For example, in the
Bekaa valley, the Liban Lait dairy farm and processing plant, the leading producer of milk and
dairy products in Lebanon, was completely destroyed in an Israeli aerial attack on 17 July 2006.
The Special Rapporteur was told that this attack has left unemployment in its wake, with 170
employees unable to return to work, and the surrounding 40 farms that used to provide milk to
Liban Lait have now lost their livelihoods as well. Liban Lait produced more than 90 per cent of
long-life pasteurized milk in Lebanon. The destruction of Liban Lait has also had wider impacts
given that fresh milk provision to local schools by Liban Lait, in collaboration with NGOs and
intergovernmental organizations, has now been interrupted and children are deprived of fresh
milk.33 In addition, at least 1,500 Bekaa residents have reportedly lost their sources of
livelihood.
25.
The Ministry of Social and Family Affairs told the Special Rapporteur that currently,
more than 70 per cent of the rural population is unemployed. With the destruction of farms and
of 124 medium-sized and large factories, many of them agricultural processing factories, many
people have been forced out of work. Many workers were already in a precarious situation:
rural farm workers earn only US$ 300 per month and there is normally work only 8 months of
the year; small farmers who own their own land earn about US$ 500 per month. Now
unemployed, there is little to live on as Lebanon has no unemployment benefit or insurance for
those forced out of work, although the Ministry has established emergency assistance
programmes to provide families with financial and psycho-social support. The Minister of
Social and Family Affairs also told the Special Rapporteur that the war had caused profound
trauma owing to the impossibility of burying the dead. He noted that 115 corpses, 50 of them
children, had been taken to the Tyre hospital morgue at the end of July 2006 but they could not
be buried because of continuous Israeli bombardments, violating the Muslim requirement that a
body be buried in dignity within a few days of death. The Special Rapporteur was also
concerned to find that one of the vulnerable groups of people particularly badly affected were
Palestinian refugees living in unregistered camps, or “gatherings”, who do not benefit from the
services of UNRWA and do not have the same rights as Lebanese, in terms of inheritance,
ownership or work. There are nine “gatherings” in the area of Tyre and nine in the Bekaa area,
and the majority of the Palestinian families survive on casual agricultural work, and/or fishing,
which have disappeared since the war, making it more difficult to feed their families. The
Special Rapporteur visited two of these “gatherings” in the south: Jall al-Bahr and Wasta. A
serious concern that has been raised is that the poorest agricultural labourers, including
Palestinians, will also be most at risk from UXO as they will be too desperate not to accept work
to clear the fields.
Fisheries
26.
Fishing activities and livelihoods have also been seriously affected by the war. An
estimated 8,000 families in the north and south of Lebanon rely on fishing for their livelihoods,
including fisherfolk, fish cleaners, market sellers and boat repairers. People were unable to go
out fishing due to destruction of boats, insecurity and the naval blockade imposed during the
war.34 The ports of Tyre and Ouzai were heavily damaged: more than 400 boats were
destroyed, in addition to fishing nets, fish markets, warehouses and related facilities.35 The
Special Rapporteur visited the port of Ouzai, which was reportedly hit by 23 attacks and which,
at the time of the visit, had still not resumed working as fisherfolk no longer had boats nor the
resources to repair them or buy new ones. The fisherfolk he met spoke about the precarious
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