There are over 300,000 Ethiopian women in Lebanon working as maids for Lebanese households across the country. Many are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that goes unpunished in Lebanon due to the institutionalized oppression enabled by the existence of the Kafala system which binds an employee to her Lebanese sponsor. The Kafala system is what facilitates the scourge. The horrific abuses meted out against Ethiopian maids in the country and the instability reigning across the country as a result of the ongoing Lebanese revolutionary protests, were slated to be primary agenda topics in the discussion.
FEATURE: ADDRESSING ETHIOPIANS IN LEBANON A FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIAL THREATENS TO SUE ADDIS STANDARD
In what Ethiopians living in the Lebanese capital of Beirut referred to as a “lashing out,” a visiting Ethiopian diplomat hosting members of the Ethiopian expat community in the country spent a half hour lecturing his audience on the ills of speaking with media, in particular Addis Standard, apparently irate over the magazine’s investigative reporting on the plight faced by Ethiopian domestic workers in Lebanon this year.
English | January 9, 2020
COMMENTS