The maids is thrown out on the street

A car stops outside the Ethiopian consulate in the city Hazmiyeh, the back door opened, and a new servant is thrown out into the street. Every night for several weeks now repeated the same scenario. Lebanese families are unable to afford to get rid of the ”maids”.

"My employer confiscated my passport and all my clothes and dumped me on the street," says the 21-year-old Tesfa Nshtilahun when the Gp see her outside the Ethiopian consulate.

the Foreign domestic workers are being subjected is, to a part of the families, for the brutal treatment. Their passports are confiscated and they are not allowed outside the family's home. Some of them are still alive in the fängelseliknande conditions.

”She threw me out on the street, but in the middle class”
in October of last year, Lebanon ended up in the depths of the financial crisis. The pound's value plummets, the prices of goods are rising, and the availability of foreign currency is almost impossible. The us dollar is used for all kinds of transactions, but for several months the banks in the country stopped paying out depositors ' money is in us dollars. The lack of hard currency, may now, in many lebanese families to give up their jobs.

" I've been working so hard for the family at the age of three. They live in the country. The past nine months, they have not paid me my salary. One evening, about a week ago, said: ”the madame” (the employer) to follow up with me. She drove me here and dropped me on the street, without my belongings, without my passport, " says Tesfa Nshtilahun from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Tesfa, from Ethiopia, is being thrown out on the street in Beirut, lebanon, as a result of the country's deep economic crisis, and the eruption of the corona.Photo by: < / b> Kassem Hamadé: , Their home is my prison,
Lebanon, is one of the countries that has received a lot of criticism from various human rights groups for its ”kafala” system. In april of last year, the Amnesty International report, ”That home is my prison”. The called on the lebanese government to stop the kafala-system ”is subjecting migrant workers to exploitative working conditions, forced labor, and even trafficking in human beings”.

How do you throw people on the street as garbage? - the Kafala system,
It criticised the kafala system ties a worker's legal right to stay in the country to contract with their employer.

There are no reliable statistics of the exact number of domestic workers in the Country. However, arbetsdepartementet registered, 158000 a work permit in 2012. Several of the domestic workers are being trafficked to Lebanon and remain on the register.

The majority of domestic workers come from asian and african countries, particularly Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Kenya.

to View merVisa off
Hana Tesfay from Ethiopia. She has been working in Lebanon for nine years. She's going to Hazmieh, every night, both to show solidarity with their landskvinnor, but also to help them out.

Hana is from Ethiopia, has been working as a domestic worker in Lebanon, at the age of eight. Now, she asks for the landskvinnor with the provision of advice and assistance.Photo by: < / b> Kassem Hamadé

" this is ridiculous. How can you throw people in the street like garbage? These people are trash? First came the revolution in October of last year, and is now in the corona. Can't the employers pay wages to these women, they would be allowed they stayed home and gave them food and a roof over your head, " says Hana.

Appeal to the president of the republic
the Ethiopian consulate is not closed. However, Hana has been trying to contact The consul, but without result. Also, the Gp has made a number of attempts to get in touch with the consulate but to no avail. Since the eruption of the corona of the elections have imposed restrictions on the repatriation of självbekostad in quarantine for 14 days at the hotel. It's the equivalent of several months ' wages to the poor workers.

" The one thing these women want is to go back to Them. The airport in Lebanon was closed, but the other countries that have taken its citizens, who were stranded here. I am appealing to our president to Ethiopia to help us, " says Hana.

READ MORE: it's Fatima's brother, died in the hungerupproret READ MORE: Beirutborna in a "quarantine" means ”Better in the war,”Kassem Hamadé on the ground in Lebanon during the coronakrisen.Part of the body, for the body – here are all of the coronasymtom