When an Israeli air strike killed her employer and destroyed practically all the things she owned in southern Lebanon, it additionally crushed Fatima Samuella Tholley’s hopes of returning residence to Sierra Leone to flee the spiralling violence.
With a change of garments stuffed right into a plastic bag, the 27-year-old housekeeper advised AFP that she and her cousin made their option to the capital Beirut in an ambulance.
Bewildered and terrified, the pair have been thrust into the chaos of the bombarded metropolis — unfamiliar to them other than the airport the place they’d arrived months earlier than.
“We do not know at this time if we are going to stay or not, solely God is aware of,” Fatima advised AFP through video name, breaking down in tears.
“I’ve nothing… no passport, no paperwork,” she stated.
The cousins have spent days sheltering within the cramped storage room of an empty condo, which they stated was provided to them by a person they’d met on their journey.
With no entry to TV information and unable to speak in French or Arabic, they may solely watch from their window as town was pounded by strikes.
The spike in violence in Lebanon since mid-September has killed greater than 1,000 folks and compelled tons of of 1000’s extra to flee their properties, as Israel bombards Hezbollah strongholds across the nation.
The scenario for the nation’s migrant employees is especially precarious, as their authorized standing is commonly tied to their employer underneath the “kafala” sponsorship system governing overseas labour.
Rights teams say the system permits for quite a few abuses together with the withholding of wages and the confiscation of official paperwork — which offer employees their solely lifeline overseas.
“After we got here right here, our madams acquired our passports, they seized all the things till we completed our contract” stated 29-year-old Mariatu Musa Tholley, who additionally works as a housekeeper.
“Now [the bombing] burned all the things, even our madams… solely we survived”.
– ‘They left me’ –
Sierra Leone is working to ascertain what number of of its residents are presently in Lebanon, with the intention of offering emergency journey certificates to these with out passports, Kai S. Brima from the overseas affairs ministry advised AFP.
The poor west African nation has a major Lebanese neighborhood courting again over a century, which is closely concerned in enterprise and commerce.
Scores of migrants journey to Lebanon yearly, with the intention of paying remittances to help households again residence.
“We do not know something, any data”, Mariatu stated.
“[Our neighbours] do not open the door for us as a result of they know we’re black”, she wept.
“We do not need to die right here”.
Fatima and Mariatu stated they’d every earned $150 per 30 days, working from 6:00 am till midnight seven days per week.
They stated they have been not often allowed out of the home.
AFP contacted 4 different Sierra Leonean home employees by cellphone, all of whom recounted comparable conditions of helplessness in Beirut.
Patricia Antwin, 27, got here to Lebanon as a housekeeper to help her household in December 2021.
She stated she fled her first employer after struggling sexual harassment, leaving her passport behind.
When an airstrike hit the house of her second employer in a southern village, Patricia was left stranded.
“The folks I work for, they left me, they left me and went away,” she advised AFP.
Patricia stated a passing driver noticed her crying on the street and provided to take her to Beirut.
Like Fatima and Mariatu, she has no cash or formal documentation.
“I solely got here with two garments in my plastic bag”, she stated.
– Sleeping on the streets –
Patricia initially slept on the ground of a pal’s condo, however moved to Beirut’s waterfront after strikes within the space intensified.
She later discovered shelter at a Christian faculty in Jounieh, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the capital.
“We’re seeing folks shifting from one place to a different”, she stated.
“I do not need to lose my life right here,” she added, explaining she had a baby again in Sierra Leone.
Housekeeper Kadij Koroma stated she had been sleeping on the streets for nearly per week after fleeing to Beirut when she was separated from her employer.
“We do not have a spot to sleep, we do not have meals, we do not have water,” she stated, including that she relied on passers by to offer bread or small change for sustenance.
Kadij stated she wasn’t positive if her employer was nonetheless alive, or if her buddies who had additionally travelled from Sierra Leone to work in Lebanon had survived the bombardment.
“You do not know the place to go,” she stated, “in all places you go, bomb, in all places you go, bomb”.
