By mona fayyad
Based on the annual report of the Follow -Up Committee For The Support Of The Lebanese Detainees in The Israeli Prisons, and based on the report prepared about their standards which is consisted of 51 pages executed by the Ministry of Social Affairs, the following study of the situation can be presented:
-The total number of detainees in the Israeli prisons included in this study according to this report is 5200 detainees: 32% from Khiam Prison, 48% from Nsar Prison, and the remaining 19.3 % from prisons inside Israel.
-Most of the detainees are men (94.8%). The percentage of those who passed away is 2.9%, and care must be provided to their families. 32% of them (1662 liberated detainees) come from Khiam prison. (There is an estimation of some reporters that the number of Khiam prisoners is 3000 detainees).
-Most of the detainees ' origins are centered in the South (88.3%: from Saidon, Nabatiah , Tyr , and Bint Jbeil provinces; and 23.3% from Marj-oyoun and Hasbiah provinces. It should be pointed that the greatest center is in Tyr porvince (26.6%).
-It is noticed that most of the ex-detainees (92.4%) live in the south provinces previously mentioned: Saidon, Nabatiah, Tyr, Bint Jbeil, Marj-oyoun, and Hasbiah. That is why it is very important to take care of these ex-detainees in their dwelling places with enormous earnestness because this procedure may participate in the reduction of their private problems and in the resolution of some of the coming problems of the liberation, particularly in the concerned districts of the South.
When we take into consideration that most of the liberated detainees live with their families whether they are fathers or sons (90.1%: 83.7% of them are married and family supporters), the issue of sanitary caring and providing the decent job becomes an issue of extreme importance, for it contributes in the resolution of a big number of individual problems. That does not mean neglecting those living alone who constitute 5.9%, but may be a closer look to their situation is recommended due to their lack of psychological comprehension essential in their conditions that may be more difficult.
Educational standards:
-5.6% distributed between illiterate (7.5%), literate, and those who have completed the elementary stage.
-42.8% has completed the intermediate, secondary, or vocational stages.
-5.1% has completed the university stage.
This indicates that most of them are not educated or specialized, and they need a certain training that helps them adapt and find a job or a profession.
Professional Standards:
-Most of the liberated detainees work as employees (43.3%), and those who word independently, meaning that they work for their own credits, constitute 39.3% without the formation of any idea about the meaning of this independency.
-12.3% of them express a desire to learn a certain profession which requires providing what helps to satisfy this need.
Age and Profession:
-The percentage of the detainees who were detained between the ages of 15 and 20 is 23.6% which explains their low educational level because of their inability to complete their education or posses a serious profession, especially if we add that the percentage of the released after the age of 20 and 24 is 33.6% which increases this problem and imposes their custody at this level as a national responsibility.
-As for the percentage of those detained between 20 and 30, it reaches 52.2%, which means that they were detained during the peak period of their professional productivity level. Their detention caused a rupture between them and their professions. This obligates a professional rehabilitation or providing the suitable job. Concerning the percentage of those who were detained at or above the age of 40, it is about 10.1% which means that their health and family stability have been ruined.
-As for the percentage of detainees whose ages lie between 25 and 50, it reaches 39.1% (approximately 40%). We assume that their families (wives and children) have suffered on both economical and emotional sides. They needed specialized care in the past and are in desperate need for it today, not only for healing their previous wounds but also for the process of merging them as citizens and making them feel this membership in reality and not only by words.
The percentage of the liberated detainees whose ages range between 35 and 39 is 32.7%. Imagine men at this age, most of them married with an average number of family members exceeding 5, without a job, a profession, or a salary that suits them and with no care from their government.
Financial Standards:
-The percentage of those who live by minimum wage or even less (meaning 400,000 LL or less) is 30% (29.8%). If we added the percentage of those who get 500,000 LL or less, the total percentage becomes 51.7%.
This indicates that more than half of the liberated detainees live on the edge of sufficiency, especially that there are no health and social guarantees that include them.
-The percentage of those who live by 1,000,000 LL or less is 35.8%. As for those who live by an amount ranging between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 LL, they constitute 5.8% only. However, 6.7% do not give an exact answer about their financial standards. Therefore, and due to the high cost of living that Lebanon is facing based on the studies that indicate the poverty line by an amount of $500 per month for a family of 5 members, we find that most of the liberated detainees live under this poverty line. This is what the following paragraph will explain.
Family Standards and number of Family Members:
-73.6% of the liberated detainees support their families by their own, and only 10.7% of them do not support a family.
-The family is constituted of 4 members or less in 30% of the cases. While the families containing between 5 and 8 members constitute 57.6%. As for the percentage of families having 9 or more members, it reaches 10.9%.
This means that more than half of the liberated detainees (68.5%) support big families with an average of monthly salaries that do not exceed the minimum wage limit.
Political Membership and Type of Resistance:
When concerned about acknowledging the reason of detention, we find that 30.8% of detainees were detained because of civil resistance and 42.8% of them do not belong to any party organization, and 70.2% do not belong to any association.
We conclude that it is the duty of the Lebanese government to take care of its citizens who were not detained for political reasons (which may scare some people some times) but only for their belonging to their country Lebanon, meaning that they will not get any support from anyone except that offered by the government and its institutions.
Annual Income and the Distribution of Family Expenditure:
-There are 15.8% of the families with no income at all.
-10.5% earn an income ranging between 250,000 and 2,500,000 LL a year. 57.5% earn an income ranging 3,500,000 and 7,000,000 LL a year. How do these families spend their income?
Averages of Incomes; how the family spends the Income:
The average annual income for these families is 4,875,000 LL.
FOOD:
-24.9% of the families spend less than 1,500,000 LL on food annually.
-21.7% expend less than 2,500,000 LL on food.
-The rest (50.4%) spend less than 7,000,000 on food annually.
CLOTHES:
More than a quarter of the families (meaning 26.9%) spend less than 250,000 LL on clothes, and 62,7% spend less than 1,500,000 LL on clothes.
EDUCATION:
58.4% of the families spend what is equal or less than 750,000 LL on education with an average of family members reaching more than 5 members for 68.5% of the families. (No statistics of a certain number of children).
MEDICAL TREATMENT:
62.9% of the families spend on medical treatment what is equal or less than 750,000 LL annually, and there is a percentage of 30.2% that spends between 1,000,000 and 2,500,000 LL on medical treatment annually.
RESIDENCE:
A percentage less than 10% spends between 750,000 and 1,500,000 LL on residence.
WATER AND ELECTRICITY:
It is remarkable that water and electricity cost a considerable amount of money ranging between 250,000 and 750,000 LL a year for 75.7% of the families.
COMPARISON BETWEEN INCOME AND EXPENDITURE:
When we considered the least average of expenditure taken into consideration for the liberated detainees ' families, it appeared that the average income for all these families is 4,875,000 LL; while the average expenditure reaches 8,500,000 LL. The question that poses itself is: How can these families survive in such conditions when the expenditure of the families is double their income?
Sanitary Status and Handicapped Cases:
2378 detainees suffer from diseases, constituting a percentage of 45.7%. Their diseases range between chronic: diabetes, glands, heart diseases, and digestive system diseases forming 34.3 % of the cases, back diseases and calcification forming 22.3%, 11.4 % suffering from nervous diseases and 11% suffering from different diseases; All these diseases are related to detention. It is also remarkable that for 62.9% of the cases, the diseases appeared before the age of thirty and for 74.1% they appeared before the age of thirty-five.10% of the detainees suffer from one major handicapped condition (495 liberated detainees). There is at least a percentage of 5% physically paralyzed. The handicapped cases appeared before the age of 25 in 56.6% of the cases, and before 30 in 72.1% of them. The report mentioned that the reason is physical in 58.8% of these cases, which cannot be explained but as a result of detention itself. The report also mentions that 76.2% of the handicapped cases and diseases are results of detention.
-Page 27: it is not clear what is meant by physical damage, for whom?
Materialistic Damages in Residential Areas and Other Properties:
53.8% of the ex-detainees have been harmed due to damages in their houses and properties.
Indemnifications:
25.4% of the ex-detainees have been given indemnifications that reached 5,000,000 LL or even less.
74.0% of them claimed that they were not considered, meaning that they got no aid.
The report mentions that 84.9% replied that they are not concerned about a question concerning the salary meant for helping them. Does that mean that they do not benefit? 13.8% replied yes about getting a salary
Ranging between 100,000 and 500,000 LL.
Conclusion
We conclude that the liberated detainees need aid at different levels:
-Donations that are offered to the families to cover health and educational insurance for family members.
-Professional and social reinhabilitaion for those who desire it associated with encouragement.
-Providing decent jobs for the liberated detainees based on their original specialization or on the training that training that they got or will get, and offering them the priority in all ministries and sections of the government.
-When it is difficult to find the liberated detainee a job or he is unable to perform it, we suggest that we treat him like a retired soldier with all family indemnifications, or preserve his right for a salary equivalent to its ex-job before detention (if it exists) and performing this job if he is able or exempt him when he has a permanent handicapped case.
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