BEIRUT: Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas said Tuesday that his ministry intends to take a series of actions to facilitate the employment of foreigners married to Lebanese women or born from Lebanese mothers.

The minister, who was speaking at a news conference, stressed that the new plan will allow foreigners who are either married to Lebanese women or born from Lebanese mothers to assume any job without submitting a certificate of deposit and to exempt them from all work licenses fees.

There are no official figures on the number of Lebanese women married to foreigners but this figure is estimated at more than 18,000.

According to the Lebanese law, foreigners married to Lebanese women or born from Lebanese mothers are not entitled to Lebanese citizenship, prompting civil rights movements and NGOs to stage wide campaign to persuade authorities to annul this “unjust and discriminatory” law.

But some political quarters have rejected granting citizenship to foreigners married to Lebanese women on the ground that it would create a demographic imbalance in the country.

“We have taken a number of measures to fix these matters because it is no longer acceptable to treat foreigners married to Lebanese wives or born from Lebanese mothers like any other foreigner. These foreigners married to Lebanese wives have become an integral part of the Lebanese society and have every right to work like any other Lebanese,” Nahhas said.

One of the modifications in Nahhas’ plan is to reimburse to foreigners married to Lebanese women LL1.5 million, the certificate of deposit which they are required to pay as a guarantee.

He added that the Security General has granted work permits for foreigners married to Lebanese wives a three-year residence permit with flexible conditions just like any other foreigner.

“We will give these eligible foreigners [the opportunity] to work in any job just any other Lebanese and there will no longer [be] a restriction on these people,” Nahhas explained.

The minister has asked the Cabinet to make the necessary amendments to these laws pertaining to foreigners married to Lebanese women.

Nahhas also wants to include foreigners married to Lebanese women and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in the National Social Security Fund according to certain conditions.

“There is a justification [for organizing] relations between the Lebanese state and Palestinian refugees,” the minister said.

But he insisted that Palestinians interested in joining the NSSF must first abide fully by the Lebanese law.

Palestinian refugees are not allowed to own property in Lebanon and are barred from working in some professions.