#SENDUSHOME

This Is Lebanon has been working tirelessly since the aftermath of the recent blast towards the goal of getting Migrant Domestic Workers (MDWs) back home safely.

Prior to the blast, conditions had deteriorated with an increasing number of employers being unable to afford, or simply refusing to pay, the salaries of their migrant domestic workers. There has been a sharp increase in migrant workers being thrown out of their sponsor’s homes, often without payment or personal identification, leaving them in a highly vulnerable position.

In response to this, as well as untenable conditions for work, This Is Lebanon calls for an immediate evacuation of vulnerable migrant workers in Lebanon. This new #SendUsHome campaign seeks to provide migrant workers a way home through the provision of flight tickets, information, and pressure on embassies and consulates of countries of origin to safely repatriate their citizens back home.

Our campaign activities serve the purpose of safely getting Migrant Domestic Workers back home.


Raising money for the repatriation of MDWs. If their employer neglects them, they haven’t been paid, and their country is not sponsoring their evacuation, they need your support.

The Lebanese authorities are fully responsible for these workers’ fate. But instead of facilitating their exit from the country, both General Security and the Judiciary put obstacles in the way to their repatriation.

Coming Soon!

We are raising funds to evacuate the most vulnerable migrant domestic workers in Lebanon so they can return to their families.

Here’s how you can help: #SendUsHome

BRIEFINGS


October 31, 2017 | 1:19 pm

Emile Bou Farah and Elias El Murr, Sexual Predators

Emile Bou Farah and Elias El Murr, Sexual Predators

Below is the anonymised testimony from a domestic worker who came to Lebanon to work for a man named Emile Bou Farah in 2010. Her account details the sexual harassment she says she faced, and the physical abuse she witnessed at the Saliba Agency which employs domestic workers. She says that Emile Bou Farah preyed on her, made unwanted advances and sexually harassed her. Furthermore, she alleges that she worked 16 hour days and was only allowed to eat once a day.

August 21, 2017 | 7:34 pm

Dr. Boutros Bou Younes - Slaveholder and Doctor who Owes $33,500 Dollars to Former Worker

Dr. Boutros Bou Younes: Slaveholder, Owes $33,500 to Former Worker

Sonam Moktan, Nepali, came to Lebanon in early 2007 to work for brothers Boutros and Ghassan Bou Younes. Boutros was her employer, but she was handed over directly to his brother, Ghassan. She ended up enslaved for a period of 10 years. In her decade in Lebanon, she is alleged to have faced both physical and sexual abuse. She worked tirelessly, without any holidays or breaks. Her employers did not provide basic items such as clothing and sanitary protection. They told her that her entire family had died in the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. She had almost no contact with them for ten years.

August 12, 2017 | 5:29 pm

Florence Njoki Wangari, Victim of Slavery at Lebanese American University

Cleaner of LAU Dorms is a Slave

Florence Njoki Wangari arrived in Lebanon from Kenya in June 2014 and left in June 2017. Her first 18 months’ salary were paid but the last 18 months remain unpaid. She repeatedly asked for her full salary, and was told in return that it was ‘in the bank’. Florence was sent back to Kenya for her father’s funeral with the promise of return, so she didn’t even take her clothes with her. When she contacted her employers from Kenya, they blocked her. She is still owed $3,000.