The Roumieh prison, the largest in Lebanon, near Beirut. (Credit: Marwan Assaf/File photo
BEIRUT — Six companies have threatened to "stop supplying food to several Lebanese prisons by the end of 2023," in a letter sent to the General Directorate of the Internal Security Forces, according to a statement released by the state-run National News Agency.
These companies, providing food to Roumieh, Zahle, and Tripoli prisons, as well as the Baabda women's prison, also reminded authorities that they are still waiting to receive payments from the last three years.
Such ultimatums are regularly sent to the authorities by these suppliers.
"We are sending you this letter to inform you that we will cease supplying food to the prisons by Dec. 31, 2023, as the contractual period (with the Lebanese authorities) has ended without a new tender and without the allocation of funds necessary for us to continue our work," reads the letter. The companies point to outstanding bills for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022, as well as invoices for three months in 2023.
Last March, these six companies also warned caretaker Minister of Interior Bassam Mawlawi, in a similar letter, that they would stop supplying food to the prisons if seven months of unpaid bills were not settled by Sept. 1. Funds were eventually allocated to pay part of the amounts due.
In August, a Human Rights Watch report noted that "access to food in prisons has dangerously deteriorated since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2019." Families, who used to bring food to prisoners before the crisis, no longer have the means to buy food for their relatives due to inflation.
As a result, detainees are relying more on food distributed in prison, but the state, weakened by the devaluation of the Lebanese pound, is struggling to pay its suppliers. Families of detainees have also denounced insufficient food distributed by these facilities and its poor quality.
