Syrian refugees farm cannabis in Lebanon
Migrant workers from neighboring Syria have done the job for many years, spending a few months a year in the region before returning home
Reuters (UK)
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Inside a garage in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley filled with green dust and piles of cannabis, stand a woman and a 13-year-old boy, sifting through the twigs and buds of the recent harvest. They are Muslim refugees from Raqqa province - de facto capital in Syria of Islamic State fighters - and part of an extended family of about 25 that fled in the past years to live in tents in the relative safety of a Lebanese village. Wearing scarves over their faces to protect them from the crop, the women and their relatives work in fields of the sticky green, spiky-leafed plants. (See also: Escaping Syria to harvest hashish in Lebanon)
