Mohamad's Story

43-year old Mohamad is from a family of 11. When he was 33, he walked to Saudi Arabia from Sudan. His friends had gone and come back and told him he could find work there. Sudanese would work as sheep and goat herders in villages. After 1 year and 2 months, he had earned 7000 riyals=$1800. He went on the Hajj.

About four months after returning to Sudan, in the year 2000, Mohamad took a $75 flight from Khartoum to Damascus. In Damascus, he was told that many Sudanese stay at Hotel Ziad. He came with $65. (1 month’s salary in Sudan is $20.) After spending three nights at Hotel Ziad, he coordinated with a group of other men to come to Lebanon. He promised a man $200 to get him through the border. The man kept his passport until he paid him. Many men packed into a Mercedes, where he was put in the trunk. They let them off before the border, where they walked for about three days and slept in farms.

He said he knew he was in Lebanon when he bought something at a store, and they gave him his change in Lebanese currency. He found work making bricks in Saida for $200 a month. They gave him a place to stay, but he had to pay for his food. To buy groceries, he had to walk to a store 15 minutes a way. After a month or so of working, Mohamad paid the man $200 and retrieved his passport. After he got to know the country better, he found another job near Saida that paid him $250 a month. It was a good job as a doorman at a school. There, they gave him a nice room and meals in the cafeteria. He was there two years. Every month he saved $150.

When he was working at the Coral Hotel he met his wife, Almaz, who's from Ethiopia. Later, he started a job as a doorman, near the Kuwaiti Embassy, and then they found work at a hotel in Faraya, but it was only for the winter. They have two children: four-year-old Mustafa and twp-year-old Fatima.

Once, when he was coming back to Beirut, he got picked up at a checkpoint at Dawhat Qaramoun. Because he had no papers, they detained him at the General Security for 21 days. Then he stayed a month at Baabda, before going in front of a judge, where he got sent to a prison in Tripoli. At this point, he had to pay at least $5000 in fees, since the government charges 105,000 L.L. = $70 every month a person resides in the country illegally. He was sentenced for one month, but he stayed in prison for six months. Every month while he was in prison, they would put him in the back of a truck where he would spend the whole day traveling to Baabda, to stand before a judge, where they told him to pay the fees that he couldn’t pay.

When Mohamad’s mother got sick, he left for Sudan. He was there for about eight months, and just returned to Lebanon a month ago. He had to come in through Syria illegally, like he did the first time. Now, it’s much harder because of stricter border controls. Again, he walked for about three days and slept outside. With him were seven Sudanese, one Libyan, two Egyptians, and one man from Sierra Leone. One of the guys got tired so they had to carry him on a donkey.

Mohamad has friends who have gone to Australia, Sweden, and America. He hopes to be able to go to one of these places some day. He applied for a UN card, but then something happened to the file, and it became closed to Sudanese. He had to start the process all over again. He filled out papers, and is waiting to hear from the UN.