THE STORY
Selina Opuku left Ghana in 2016 for Lebanon to work for Rashed Ghandour and Lena Aad. Her family didn’t hear from her for almost two years. Selina says she was not paid at all during this time, and she was not allowed any contact with her family. She alleges that before she left, Lena Aad publicly humiliated her by stripping her on the street. To date, Selina has not been paid.
On 30 September 2018, Selina’s brother Stephen Opuku contacted This Is Lebanon from Ghana about his sister, who had been employed two years. Stephen wrote: “Please, I have my sister in Lebanon and she is undergoing slavery and abuse. She want to come back to Ghana. Ever since she left she have not receive anything [any payment]. Her phone has been seized and the passport also. We can’t talk to her nor the madam cause the madam has BLOCKED me from talking to her directly.”
Rashed Ghandour, who worked in Ghana, sent Selina to work for his (now ex-) wife Lena Aad. According to Selina, her employers didn’t pay her for two years. The audio posted below is a conversation between This Is Lebanon and Lena Aad. We asked to speak to Selina on Lena’s phone, but she declined, saying she’s “always busy at work,” and that when she allows Selina to use the phone she “always makes trouble.”
Lena said to wait for Selina in Ghana, and that she would send her within two months once her “other girl” (employee) had arrived. Lena told This Is Lebanon that “under the rules in Lebanon, no one can force me to to buy her a phone or let her contact her family,” and that she only has the “right to contact her family once every six months.” Lena alleged that Selina was making trouble and that her family were repeatedly asking her for money which she didn’t want to send them.
“Under the rules in Lebanon, no one can force me to to buy her a phone or let her contact her family,” - Lena
After This Is Lebanon sent Rashed and Lena the audio recording, the employers sent Selina back to Ghana. But before Selina was sent back, she alleges that Lena stripped her on the street in front of her husband, while he stood on and watched. Lena allegedly told Selina that her clothes didn’t belong to her as she had bought them for her.
This Is Lebanon sent that video to Lena and Rashed Aad on WhatsApp. We asked them to pay Selina her two years salary and send her home. Lena blocked us:
Rashed replied saying his ex-wife was a ‘narcissist’ and he would get Selina away from her. This he did. However, he sent her home without any payment for her 2 years of forced labour. We had a long conversation with Rashed and he made many promises to pay her but never delivered on those promises. In the end, we gave up on him and posted. Part of the conversation with him is pictured in the screenshot.
Selina now has a lawyer and her case will go to the courts. It will probably take a long time. Will she eventually get justice? Watch this space.
