Trapped with no passport or shelter, female migrant workers in the grips of the war in Lebanon

“We weren’t let in to the shelters. Nobody welcomed us.” This is how a female migrant worker* in Lebanon summed up what she and her peers have been going through during the ongoing war in Lebanon, especially after the intensification of the shelling and military operations since September 23 and given their forced displacement in search of safe places.

Domestic workers are sleeping in parks

More than one and a half million people have been displaced in Lebanon as nearly one quarter of the population has left their homes in the South, the Beqaa, and the southern suburbs of Beirut. So far, official figures estimate that only about 190,000 displaced persons have been housed in approved shelters. The number of these shelters stands at a meager 1,076 facilities, spread across various regions. Of them, 885 have reached their maximum capacity.

Many have been paying the price for the insufficient number of shelters and the inability of the Lebanese state and its various institutions to contain this massive displacement. A large number of migrant domestic workers of African origin were left to their fate and thrown on the streets, as most shelters only receive Lebanese. They have found themselves without shelter or assistance.

One such domestic worker slept in a park in Beirut for more than a week. She says that the family she worked for suddenly decided to leave the country; she was abandoned with nothing but the clothes on her back and her passport, which is no longer of much use seeing as most airlines are cancelling their flights to and from Lebanon—not to mention the cost of a flight to Ethiopia, which would also require a signature from her sponsor or embassy assistance. “I have a hundred dollars to my name. What is that supposed to do for me?” she asks.

Hundreds of displaced people are under bridges, on roads, and in the few parks in Beirut and some other areas. Among them are migrant workers who have run out of options and have nowhere to go but the street.

Hundreds of displaced people are under bridges, on roads, and in the few parks in Beirut and some other areas.

Employers abandoned domestic workers

Israeli bombing forced these migrant workers to leave their homes and also made some families abandon them as they traveled or moved to another city. These women had to go from one shelter to another, only to be met with the same answer every time: priority goes to the Lebanese. On top of that, shelters are not even equipped to receive displaced people, as most of them are actually schools and do not have facilities for the most basic necessities of normal life: no showers, no mattresses, no privacy. Left with no other option, the displaced are forced to live in extreme overcrowding among difficult conditions. According to our sources, skin diseases and lice are starting to spread in some centers due to the lack of the most basic elements of personal hygiene and privacy.

In a report, the United Nations revealed that some migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are being held inside the homes of their employers who fled the Israeli airstrikes.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the UN-affiliated International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported an increase in the number of cases of Lebanese families who have abandoned the foreign domestic workers they employ, leaving them to face the danger as the war continues.

The IOM emphasized that about 170,000 migrant workers in Lebanon, a large percentage of whom are women from Ethiopia, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, are suffering greatly under the conditions of this war in light of the bombing and displacement.

“We are receiving increasing reports of migrant domestic workers who have been abandoned by their Lebanese employers before they fled, either leaving them in the streets or stuck inside their homes,” said Mathieu Luciano, the IOM's Head of Office in Lebanon.

No solutions to help female workers

Things are only made worse by the fact that migrant workers primarily suffer from the Lebanese sponsorship law—the kafala system—which restricts their freedom as their legal status is often linked to their employer under the “sponsorship” system, which is considered to be unfair and a form of modern-day slavery by human rights activists. These activists confirm that the kafala system allows for violations that include the withholding of wages and confiscating official documents that allow workers to leave the country.

So far, there are no solutions on the horizon for these people. Special sources for Medfeminiswiya claim that some African embassies have started to gradually help workers return to their countries, as it is difficult to evacuate all nationals at once given the logistical hurdles, including the lack of flights and the situation at the Beirut airport. Some of these women do not have phones or identification papers, making it difficult to contact them or figure out their whereabouts, a situation made worse by the fact that many of them are now homeless and on the streets, as one official told us. As a result, evacuating these women may take weeks, weeks during which many are sleeping on the streets, exposed to all forms of fear, violence, oppression, and humiliation.

* In Lebanon, foreign or migrant workers are referred to as “foreign domestic workers.” They work primarily in domestic service, elderly care, and childcare. They come mainly from countries such as Ethiopia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. These women often work in difficult conditions under the sponsorship, or kafala, system that legally binds them to their employers.