Eva & Hans-H. Alpers Photography

Damascus - Syria: Warten und arbeiten / 2001 - 2007

They come every morning. Usually before the sun drives away the night. They are always the same ones, some have been standing here for years. They lean against the wall of the Sinan Pasha Mosque in the center of Damascus and stare at the tangle of taxis and honking cars. They are loners, coming from Hauran, from the province of Suwaida or from Damascus. Those from the Hassake region in northeastern Syria come in groups. Twelve hours by bus through the desert. They sit on their overturned buckets on the other side of the road. They are all day laborers: plumbers, bricklayers, cement mixers, drain cleaners, painters. In front of them, like waiting dogs, are the tools: pickaxes and shovels. Sometimes pliers and an iron hook, tied together and leaning against a bucket, these are the tools of the plumbers and drain cleaners. Others have only a brush in their hand or a bucket with their work clothes in it. There may be fifty of them. Maybe more. All men. No one knows how many there are in Damascus. They are not registered anywhere. Some even wait at the square at night to help build illegal houses. Most of them earn on average no more than a dollar a day. They have no health or accident insurance. And what is worse, they are considered the dregs of society. 

Karin Wenger (excerpt from NZZ dated June 8, 2007)