Like many domestic workers in Beirut, Hanna was laid off from her job in recent months because of the country’s deep economic crisis.
The 21-year-old lives in a small room in Lebanon’s capital city with six other Ethiopian women. When Beirut’s devastating blast hit on Tuesday evening, it blew out their door and all their windows.
[ATTACH=full]318048[/ATTACH]
Ethiopian domestic workers who were dismissed by their employers gather with their belongings outside their country’s embassy in Hazmiyeh, east of Beirut, on June 24, 2020.
“We weren’t home at the time, so we are safe,” Hanna said, speaking to CNN on the condition that her full name wasn’t used. But now, she said, “anyone in the street can walk through the door and find us sleeping. We are afraid.”
Hanna and her six roommates are just some of the thousands-strong mainly African domestic worker populations living in Lebanon. Some of them were swept up in the explosion that left a 10-kilometer circle of destruction in Beirut.
In the aftermath, rights groups are warning that this vulnerable group is facing dire situations as many of them are stranded in the country and unable to go home.
The treatment of domestic workers in Lebanon had already come under intense scrutiny in recent months. Last week, CNN reported multiple allegations of abuse by the top two officials at the Kenyan consulate in Beirut. The assistant consul denied all allegations of wrongdoing at the consulate, while the honorary consul did not respond to requests for comment.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/07/africa/beirut-domestic-workers-ethiopia-intl/index.html
[SIZE=7]Kenyans in Lebanon Pelt Embassy With Stones in Protest[/SIZE]
Domestic workers stranded in Lebanon continued to protest outside the Kenyan Consulate in Beirut on Monday, August 17, as they demanded repatriation.
Capping a week of relentless daily protests, chaotic scenes were witnessed as the fed-up Kenyans began bombarding the Consulate building with all manner of items.
The Coat of Arms was pelted with stones as the protesters repeatedly chanted “We want to go home!”.
Kenya had announced that citizens stuck in Lebanon would be evacuated after the Beirut explosion of August 4. Citizens were asked to register with the Kenyan Embassy in Kuwait, accredited for Lebanon.
[MEDIA=twitter]1295671016291803136[/MEDIA]
On Friday, August 14, however, the embassy announced that a delay of up to one week would be experienced in securing the necessary documents due to the implications of the blast. The military took over essential services, with a caretaker government in place after top officials resigned in the aftermath of the blast.
[ATTACH=full]319996[/ATTACH]
Kenyans pictured outside the country’s Honorary Consulate in Beirut, Lebanon
The plan posed a challenge for many Kenyans who arrived in Lebanon as undocumented immigrants to take up various jobs.
The Embassy in Kuwait further accused Kenyans of being chaotic and frustrating the process with relentless protests outside their consulate in Beirut.
The protests come at a time when Lebanese citizens continue with protests over grand corruption, demanding radical change in daily demonstrations in Beirut.
Top officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were yet to respond to queries made by[I] Kenyans.co.ke[/I] by the time of publication.
Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau had, however, dismissed reports that the government had abandoned Kenyans in Lebanon, maintaining that everything was being done to get them home.
“We have always been one of the first, if not the only African country, to evacuate. Every time there is a problem, if it is genuine, we always bring Kenyans home,”
“Consular services are there to help people deal with the law and order situation and documentation in case they run into difficulties,” he stated on Monday, August 17.
He was responding to a report from the International Relations Society of Kenya (IRSK), that lamented over what it described as the government’s inaction despite the contributions made by Kenyans in the diaspora to the economy.
“The Kenyan passport needs to mean something. The claims of lack of a budgetary capacity to secure Kenyans in times of crisis is tragic,” stated IRSK secretary Peter Mwencha.
Meanwhile:
[MEDIA=twitter]1295664814451286018[/MEDIA]