Stranded African migrants in Lebanon feel abandoned

In Lebanon, everyone appears to be scrambling for safety as best they can. However, among those left behind are migrant domestic workers, especially those from Africa.

Migrant workers of African origin say they have found it difficult to access emergency shelters after their Lebanese employers abandoned them in the middle of a worsening conflict zone.

The Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, have triggered a widening regional conflict, including Israeli airstrikes and a ground offensive in Lebanon.

The Lebanese government estimates that the current violence has displaced over 1.2 million Lebanese nationals. There are, however, no reliable figures on how many foreigners might be affected by the ongoing crisis.

"These people do not care about us. To them, we are like working machines. My friends were denied entry at shelters because they are not Lebanese," said Regina Blessing Kyalo, a Kenyan domestic worker who came to Lebanon in 2023.

"We are stuck. There is no way out," she told DW.

Mariatu Tholley, a Sierra Leonean migrant living in Beirut, told DW that she has been having sleepless nights. "They are bombing everywhere at night. This country is not safe for us for now," she said, adding that she had nowhere to go.

Lebanese authorities have recently faced repeated accusations of prioritizing the safety of their own citizens and are accused of discriminating against foreigners.

Growing despair amid limited shelters

UN officials say that most shelters in Lebanon for displaced people are now full. People have turned instead to sleeping out in the streets or in public parks to avoid shelling and rocket attacks.

"Most of the nearly 900 government-established collective shelters in Lebanon have no more capacity," Rula Amin, from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said during a press briefing in Geneva.

Mathieu Luciano, head of the International Organization For Migration (IOM) in Lebanon, has also expressed his concern for thousands of domestic workers, often female migrants, whom he said were "abandoned" by their employers. "They face very limited shelter options," he said.

The situation is extremely difficult for migrant women in particular, as many of them work as freelance domestic workers paid per hour, according to Dara Foi'Elle from Migrant Workers' Action, a Lebanese NGO.

She told DW that many usually work as live-in domestic workers in the middle-class areas of Southern Lebanon — the same region Israel has been shelling in its fight against Hezbollah during the past few weeks.

"There is need for organized sheltering for migrants, which should be organized by international organizations,"  Foi'Elle said. She added that the Lebanese government has a policy "to prioritize its citizens at public shelters."

Lack of travel documents hampering evacuation

There are more than 175,000 migrants from 98 countries residing in Lebanon, according to estimates by the IOM. Those numbers, however, only reflect the situation before the current conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

To make matters worse, many migrant workers cannot evacuate without their travel documents, which are often in the custody of their employers.

"Our bosses are holding on to our passports and travel documents. They are running away with our documents," said Kyalo, describing any attempt to get back home as "mission impossible."

The so-called Kafala system allows employers and job recruitment agencies in Lebanon to confiscate travel documents to ensure that workers cannot abscond. However, this has considerably complicated not only the evacuation of migrant workers but also access to nearly all public services.

"A lot of migrant workers are unable to access health care and services offered by the government without documentation. This is a gross human rights violation now worsened by the security situation in the country," Foi'Elle told DW.

Some migrants were allegedly left behind, locked up in the homes where they work, unable to leave high-rise buildings in areas where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been carrying out bombardments against Hezbollah positions.

Governments scramble to evacuate their citizens

Some foreign governments have now started organizing evacuation plans for their citizens, but progress has been slow so far.

Bangladesh, Kenya and the Philippines have all asked their citizens in Lebanon to register for evacuation.

Meanwhile, many African and Asian migrant workers struggle to get emergency travel papers to leave Lebanon.

"The lack of diplomatic missions in the country is worsening the situation. Most countries do not have embassies in the country but only honorary consulates," Foi'Elle told DW.

The curious case of Kenyan evacuation registrations

The Kenyan government says that few nationals in Lebanon have registered for evacuation despite being encouraged to do so in the beginning of July.

The State Department for Diaspora Affairs (SDDA) has said has received around 3,500 Kenyans have reportedly registered for evacuation, mostly in the past few days. That figure represents only about one-eighth of all Kenyans believed to be in Lebanon.

Roseline Njogu, the Principal Secretary for SDDA, told Kenyan media that it had evacuated less than 100 individuals in two batches. This occured in September, when demand was apparently much lower. 

However, some Kenyan nationals claimed that they had registered for evacuation in July but have yet to see any action taken by their government to protect them.

Kyalo is one of those Kenyans waiting to see their government spring into action. She said that despite registering long before the recent escalation of the war, she has yet to receive any response on evacuation plans.

"I registered five months ago. I was among the first people to register. There is nothing that is being done. They are just talking," she said.

Njogu has vowed that her office "will rescue as many Kenyans as need be — even if it means 26,000 of them,"  she said to Kenyan media, citing the estimated number of Kenyans living and working in Lebanon published by the SDDA.

However, the Kenyan government has also stated that it intends to close the registration for evacuation by October 12 — a deadline of merely a few days.

As the war in Lebanon rages on and with no cease-fire in sight, conducting safe evacuations may become more challenging.

Editor: Sertan Sanderson