They stand begging in front of their faces closed doors of their embassies
Foreign workers after the Beirut bombing: "We want to return to our country"
Thousands of foreign workers are unable to obtain their salaries in dollars due to the successive crises in Lebanon. A.F.B.
picture
The Ethiopian worker, Trek Kebeda, spent a difficult year in Lebanon, where she witnessed an economic collapse and then the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, until the explosion of the Beirut port occurred to form the decisive blow that made her determined to return to her country.
Trick, 22, says: "I love Lebanon so much, but I can't live in it anymore."
In a small house she shares with her friends in the Karantina area, adjacent to the port of Beirut, and most affected by the August 4 blast, the kitchen ceiling fell, walls cracked, and all windows broken.
"I am afraid that I will sleep here and the wall will fall over our heads," Trick said, which prompted her to move to live with her Ethiopian neighbors in a house whose walls were also cracked.
Like thousands of foreign workers in Lebanon, Trek and her friends have lost their jobs in Beirut's cafes and stores over the past months.
Thousands of foreign workers are living in successive crises in Lebanon on the impact of the economic crisis that made most of them unable to obtain their salaries in dollars with the collapse of the value of the local currency, or caused them to lose their jobs without even paying their dues, and the closure measures due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic exacerbated the situation, and the explosion was The Apocalyptic Harbor is the last episode.
"There is no work, how can I feed myself?" Trick says, besides that she does not have enough money to buy a ticket back home.
Hardly a single house in Karantina was spared from damage or even destruction, which adds to the burden on its residents, many of whom are foreign and Syrian workers.
Some of these workers complain that the aid is not reaching them, given that they are not Lebanese. "On one occasion, a truck came to distribute food boxes, but they said it was only for the Lebanese," says here, a young Ethiopian woman in her twenties.
Roman Abera (31 years old) is still experiencing the shock of the explosion as if it happened yesterday, and she remembers in detail the feelings of fear that she experienced when she hid under a car, and how she came back to find a big hole in the wall of her home.
About 20 days after the explosion, Roman still jumps out of fear whenever she hears a loud noise.
The young woman who left her child in Ethiopia in order to secure his future by working in Lebanon says, "I hope that Lebanon will return to its former state," but after the successive strikes, the last of which was the explosion, "nothing remains here."
"Nobody cares about us."
In front of the Gambia Consulate, about 30 workers chanted, "We want to return to our country," some of them cried, others shouted loudly, and some of them knocked hard on the door or threw dirt on it, but the door remained closed in front of them.
"Our consulate does not do anything to deport us, and none of us have the money to buy a ticket," Fatou Conte, a former domestic worker, says angrily.
One of her friends intervenes, without revealing her name: "We are here like slaves. We are not treated well, and the level of racism is very high," noting that many were injured in the Beirut port explosion, but "no one cares about us."
About 250,000 domestic workers live in Lebanon, the vast majority of them women, and the bulk of them come from Ethiopia.
Migrant domestic workers are not covered by the labor law for meager wages of between $ 150 and $ 400.
Zeina Ammar from the "anti-racism movement" in Lebanon called on the countries concerned to take back their citizens and "finance their deportation", and to return workers who do not have identity documents "in order to preserve their lives."
"Only no more"
After the Beirut port explosion, foreign workers rushed to join volunteer groups in the street, and activists on social media circulated videos while they were participating in cleaning the streets, and others were documented by surveillance cameras at the moment of the explosion, showing workers rushing to rescue children in the homes where they work.
However, the Anti-Racism Movement says that the authorities have not paid enough attention to the victims among the foreign workers.
Outside the Kenyan consulate in Beirut, dozens of workers began a sit-in open since August 10 to demand to return to their country, among them a young woman (21 years old) narrates how she escaped from a house where she was working due to bad treatment, to be injured later as a result of the port explosion.
"I gave the consulate $ 600 for the ticket, but they did not do anything," she says, which the consulate denies, confirming that it is making efforts to deport those who wish to return.
Another young woman recounts that after the explosion, her employers threw her in front of the consulate door without her passport or even her salary, claiming that her illness made her unable to work.
Her friend Emily (27 years) says: "Is it possible to throw a sick woman on the street at night?"
“We just want help to get back to our country,” she says, as a woman sits near her, carrying a baby. Only, no more ».
After the explosion, foreign workers rushed to join volunteer groups on the street.
- Trek: “I’m afraid to sleep here, and the wall will fall over our heads. There is no work, how do I feed myself? ”