The Invisible Figures of Lebanon
News analysis by Ubah Ali & Claudette Igiranaeza, Staff Writers
April 1st, 2020
Traveling thousands of kilometers to find a better source of income in order to meet their needs and support their families is the main reason that many women from Sub-Saharan African countries come to Lebanon as migrant domestic workers. These women travel to Lebanon expecting to be treated like any other human beings and live and work under decent conditions, however, these minimal expectations fade away the moment they set foot at the Rafik Hariri International Airport. With the deep racial discrimination embedded in the Lebanese community, though rarely acknowledged, these women face human and women’s rights violations, which unfortunately sometimes result in their death. With time, a place that they once considered as a door to realizing their dreams turns into a portal into which they witness their own dreams slowly vanishing away. It is overwhelmingly devastating to hear every week the “unexpected” deaths of African migrant domestic workers due to reasons such as murder, suicide, rape, depression, and more. Additionally, it is heartbreaking to witness the lives of these workers vanishing and no one is held accountable for their deaths. The lack of transparency and accountability within the Lebanese system completely ignores the rights of these women and from a humanist and moral perspective, this is the highest level of human rights violations.
A few days ago, the life of a young African woman was taken away. Her name was Faustina Tay, 23 years old from Ghana. Her body was found in a car park under her employers’ fourth-story home in Beirut. At her young age, Faustina had aspirations to achieve her full potential and realize her dreams, but her life was taken so young and unexpected. Her life was taken by a sponsorship system, Kafala, that completely ignores the rights of workers and women and instead maximizes its profits through exploiting and enslaving them. Faustina was one the one to two migrant domestic workers who die every week and their deaths are completely ignored by the Lebanese community and nothing is done to investigate these deaths or even prevent more deaths from happening. 2 per week is indeed too many but for the Lebanese community, this number is still not big enough to prevent that more workers continue to die under the roofs of their employers. Moreover, 2 per week is still not significant enough to reach the Lebanese media platforms instead of the death of these women is usually covered by non-Lebanese media.
At the moment, Lebanon is home to 250,000 migrant domestic workers who mainly come from Sub-Saharan Africa and Asian countries. If the Lebanese government and the Lebanese community do not take measures to protect the lives of these workers and provide them with decent living and working conditions, Lebanon is silently and blindly practicing slavery which is an evident case of human rights violations and sign of backwardness.
As both of us came from sub-Saharan Africa and got the opportunity to study at the American University of Beirut, experiencing endless discriminations while walking around the streets of Beirut forced us to normalize such behavior as a coping mechanism. Knowing that there are no institutions that can support and fight for the rights of the minority in Lebanon clearly shows how many Lebanese have normalized discrimination and abusing the rights of their workers. However, the fact that racial discrimination is normalized in the Lebanese community does not eliminate the fact it is wrong and unethical. Additionally, it is overwhelming to read every day the horrible lives that girls like us experience in Lebanon and knowing that even their dead bodies will be just numbers pilling up and no actions being taken to protect these workers.