Invisible in Plain Sight: Why Support Should Not Depend on Population Size
Unequal Support: When Small Numbers Hide Real Lives
This is Jane, a 27-year-old Ethiopian domestic worker living in Akkar.
Last month, when she got sick, she had no access to community aid, legal protection, or medical support.
She waited four days before anyone could help her—not because support didn’t exist, but because in Akkar there are too few immigrant workers to be considered a priority.
Jane’s struggle is not personal—it’s structural.
Immigrant workers in Lebanon are not distributed evenly across the country, and when population numbers are small, support systems disappear.
Small communities become invisible, unheard, and unprotected.
Below is the distribution of immigrant workers across Lebanon by nationality and governorate.
Everything in blue represents a community with fewer than 10,000 workers, meaning low visibility and often no access to essential support.
While Beirut hosts extremely large populations — for example 38,642 workers labeled “Other Nationalities” and 25,452 Ethiopians—governorates like Akkar host only 266 Ethiopians and 127 Bangladeshis.
Yet behind every small number is a real human life.
If We Do Nothing
If nothing changes, workers like Jane will continue to suffer in silence.
Low-population regions will remain overlooked, and inequality will deepen — not because help doesn’t exist, but because help isn’t distributed fairly.
What Can We Do?
Solution 1—Mobile Clinics
Mobile clinics are medical vans that travel to underserved regions to deliver basic healthcare.
They bring support to people who cannot safely or affordably reach Beirut.
During COVID-19, NGOs in Lebanon successfully used mobile medical units to reach remote areas — proving that mobility overcomes geographic inequality.
Solution 2—Rotating Outreach Teams
Teams of legal advisors, translators, and social workers rotate across governorates weekly, providing education, protection, and emergency help.
This approach already works in Jordan, where outreach teams support Syrian refugees in dispersed rural camps without needing permanent offices.
Solution 3—Minimum-Support Policies
A national guarantee ensuring every governorate receives a basic level of support, regardless of population size.
Just as Lebanon provides schools, electricity, and hospitals to small villages, immigrant workers deserve equal dignity and safety.
Findings & Recommendation
Support should not depend on population size — dignity must be universal.
Lebanon should adopt minimum-support policies, expand mobile and rotating services, and ensure that no worker is invisible.
Jane deserves to be seen. Every worker does.
