The Lebanese valley where Syrian refugee children are used for labour

Lebanon’s vast Bekaa Valley produces a wide range of fresh fruit and vegetables. The workers used to harvest the produce are children, who work for less than $1 and hour.

Lebanon’s vast Bekaa Valley is home to sprawling refugee settlements – housing thousands of Syrians who have fled their wartorn homeland.

Many of the refugees have become a ready labour force, performing the back-breaking harvesting.

July is potato season, and hundreds endure 30-plus degree temperatures, picking and packing potatoes.

Some are as young as five. 

Rami, 8, fled Syria with his mother and now works in the fields.

He said he preferred to work rather than going to school because of the money it provided for his family.

Workers in the valley (SBS) Source: SBS

The financial reward isn't that much - the six-and-a-half hour shift yields just under $6 (US$5).

Landlord Rabih Skaf said the labour provided a much needed living for the refugees.

He sells the potatoes to a wholesaler in Beirut for about $5 (US$6) per bag and said he's comfortable having women and children undertake the grueling work.

“It depend to the age - I think up eight or nine year, it's ok but down it's unfair," he said.

"They need money."

Potatoes collected in the field (SBS) Source: SBS

Wages aside, the conditions are questionable.

Men with menacing sticks patrol the fields and rumours abound that they abuse the children.

A Lebanese law preventing Syrian men from working exposes the women and children to the punishing labour.

It's a rule the United Nations wanted reviewed.

“When the refugees arrived, some of them might have had savings but over time those have been completely depleted,” said Matthew Saltmarsh from the UNHCR Beirut office.

It's estimated 90 per cent of the million Syrian refugees in Lebanon are now in debt, but Mr Saltmarsh said it’s no excuse for effectively enslaving children.

“We would say young people should be in school. They shouldn't be out in the fields. They shouldn't be on the streets. They should be learning in school,” he said.

Syrian refugee Alaa,12, agrees.

She attends the United Nations school when she can and while her hands are busy in the Lebanese soil, her mind is elsewhere with aspirations to one day be a teacher and return home.

“I prefer school because we learn at school," she said.

"I would prefer to be in Syria because our country is better."

At the end of the working day, the children are lined up and counted in case some have escaped.

Those suspected of stealing a potato or two to feed the family are searched.

They're then released and trucked back to the simple camps they call home.