Patricia, who got here to Lebanon from Sierra Leone just a few years in the past to work as a home in a home in southern Lebanon, by no means imagined she can be caught in a battle within the Center East.
“I’m scared. I need to go residence. I got here to Beirut in an ambulance from the southern port metropolis of Tyre,” she instructed dpa in a shelter housing 200 home employees, who’re caught with out their passports.
Quite a few overseas home employees in Lebanon are trapped within the nation because of the Israeli assaults.
“The home I used to be working in bought bombed, and the woman I used to be working was so scared and me too,” she stated, tears in her eyes.
A bunch of activists have arrange a shelter for home employees stranded in Lebanon in a warehouse to assist them deal with the battle.
Lea Ghorayeb, one of many activists, instructed dpa that she was serving to the migrants after they had been left by their employers within the streets, amid shelling and with out their passports or different official papers.
“Most of them don’t have their passports. Most need to go away the nation, however a few of them don’t have cash to depart,” she stated.
“When issues cool down a bit, we are going to work to ship those that are prepared to depart to their international locations and people who need to keep, we attempt to discover some first rate locations for them to work,” Ghorayeb stated.
Ghorayeb stated that she and different activists put in a kitchen for the stranded employees, to allow them to cook dinner their very own meals.
Overseas home employees are employed in Lebanon below the controversial Kafala system that ties migrants to a neighborhood sponsor.
Human rights activists describe the system as slavery. Most of the employers maintain the staff’ passports. There have additionally been repeated studies of mistreatment of home workers, being locked inside the homes the place they work, or made to work seven days every week.
In line with the UN Group for Migration (IOM), the ladies primarily come from international locations comparable to Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
“I don’t want die. I’m so scared, all I would like is return residence,” Fatima from Sierra Leone, stated as she held her sister’s 3-year-old son.
