ADDIS ABABA – Around 247 undocumented citizens who lived as domestic workers in Lebanon for years will return home soon, pertinent source told The Ethiopian Herald on the condition of anonymity.
The Ethiopian Consulate based in Beirut started facilitating conditions following the citizens’ willingness to return home, the source said.
The returnees were brought to court for being undocumented but all the cases had been said to have related to the Kafala system—Kafala is sponsorship system that “has been linked to a contemporary form of slavery,” according to International Labor Organization.
The court cases were dropped to all of them due to bilateral discussions held between the Consulate and Lebanese authorities and the Consulate has offered Laissez Passer while making discussion with Ethiopian that resulted in a 20-percent off on air ticket fees, it was disclosed.
Between July and November 2019, 700 citizens who were in similar conditions were reported to have been returned home through the Consulate.
Pertinent data of the Lebanese Ministry of Labor is said to have indicated that there are over 400, 000 registered Ethiopian citizens in that country.
Workers are also exposed to unpaid wages and other form of abuse by the employers who also seize the workers’ passports. Most say the situation subjects domestic workers to flee their employers, a criminal offense under the country’s law, without possessing passports that in turn lead them to further abuse.
Cases of abuse ranging between 10 and 15 are reported to the Consulate as a worker who spoke under the condition of anonymity told The Ethiopian Herald.
The Consulate and other Ethiopian associations based in Lebanon offers various supports to citizens admitted to a shelter the Consulate has established until the conditions get facilitated to return home, it was learnt.
Lebanon is one of the Middle Eastern Countries Ethiopian workers immigrate to work though there is no official bilateral labor agreement, it was learnt.
The Kafala system entitles employers to have full responsibility over employees’ residence permit, insurance, workers permit and the like.
Around 35, 784 citizens have crossed through Sudan to Lebanon between the months of March and June 2019, according to pertinent source, at a time joblessness is rampant in Lebanon and the economy of the country is in a serious condition, according to the source.
The Ethiopian Herald December 20/2019
BY WORKU BELACHEW
