Due to poverty and lack of perspective, many people in the suburbs of Tripoli see only one way out. Boats depart regularly from the northern Lebanese port to Europe. Cyprus is only a few hours away by boat.
Smugglers charge a lot of money for that trip and that is not for everyone. Some guys from Tripoli are now opting for another option to escape the misery: they join IS in Syria and Iraq. The IS salary of about 1000 euros per month beckons. For the past three months they have quietly left in groups.
“So far, more than a hundred boys have been affected. In the past three months, many parents in Tripoli woke up to find that their son had disappeared,” said Mohammad Sablouh, a lawyer in Tripoli. He has been involved in terrorism cases since 2007 and is now in close contact with relatives of boys who have traveled. “One morning thirty of them had disappeared at once.”
Useless
Sablouh says that many boys became radicalized in Lebanese prisons. After their release, they were ignored and could no longer integrate into society. “They came out worse than they went in. Usually they were stuck with radical leaders for years. Once at home, they couldn’t resume normal life. The authorities made their life hell. These guys feel useless in it. society and were arrested again at the slightest sign.”
That’s exactly what happened to Oum Tarek’s son. Her son was in prison for five years, his father died during that period and once home, the hopelessness was his greatest challenge. He couldn’t find a job. “He was going to get married, I tried to arrange everything for him. But two weeks ago I woke up and he was gone.”
She does not blame her upbringing but blame the authorities for the fact that her son is now with IS: “The Lebanese government is to blame here. They are treating our boys unjustly. They have no life, they are deliberately keeping us poor,” she says and she looks out of her bullethole-filled window over her suburb of Tripoli. Children hang out on the street, there has been no school for months, water and electricity are only available sporadically.
Also view this report by our correspondent Daisy Mohr
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