BEIRUT, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- The newly appointed Lebanese Labor Minister Camille Abousleiman said Saturday that the priority of his ministry is to stop competition caused by foreign workers in the market, local media reported.
"We are going to adopt a new mechanism that would give Lebanese workers a priority in the local market in order to stop competition caused by foreign laborers," Abousleiman was quoted as saying by Elnashra, an online independent newspaper.
"We want to protect Lebanese employees," he added.
Since the start of the civil war in neighboring Syria, thousands of Syrian refugees moved to Lebanon. Lebanese businesses tend to replace local employees with Syrians as the refugees usually cost less in terms of salaries and national social security, causing a high unemployment among Lebanese.
Ola Boutros, advisor to the Foreign Affairs Minister in charge of the Syrian refugees' dossier, said last year that around 270,000 Lebanese lost their jobs after 384,000 Syrian refugees poured into the country's employment market.
