Alem Gifeto could not stop hugging her mother. Along with 94 other Ethiopian domestic workers, she returned to Ethiopia last week after being separated from her family for two years. Like many Ethiopian women in Lebanon hired as domestic workers, Gifeto was mistreated under the country’s discriminatory kafala system, or indentured servitude, that ties an employee’s legal status to their employer.
After years of abuse, she had given up hope of ever returning to Ethiopia. “I’m just thankful it’s all over,” she told VICE News from her home in Ethiopia’s Hadiya region. “I still can’t believe I’m home.”