Monday, 24 Aug, 2020: Invisible Women Migrant Workers in the Beirut Explosion hosted by Margo Okazawa-Rey

On today’s show we talk about the August 4 explosions of nearly 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate being stored for 6 years without any safety precautions in a warehouse at the port of Beirut. These explosions have killed hundreds of people; displaced many, many more. The body-counting continues. The explosions also rocked the political establishment when Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his cabinet resigned on August 10. Some of the most affected people include Syrian refugees, who number around one million total. 

Another group is women migrant domestic workers, whose stories have not been told in any meaningful ways during the current crisis. They are women primarily from Ethiopia but also include women from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Kenya, and Nigeria, for example. They are, in practice, indentured servants or modern-day enslaved people due to the kafala system, where workers are at the mercy of their “employers.” Some have not been paid since as long ago as October 2019. As a result of the devastation of the explosion multiplying their suffering, they “just want to go back home.”

Today’s conversation is with Lara Nuwayhid, Regional Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa with the International Domestic Workers Federation, who oversees program activities that raise awareness about domestic workers and provide support for their advocacy work. She spoke to us live from Beirut. 

Click here to listen to the show. 59:50 min

Links:

International Domestic Workers Federation

https://idwfed.org/en  

https://www.facebook.com/IDWFED

https://www.facebook.com/EgnaLegnaBesidet 

Anti-Racism Movement  partner fundraising with them:  https://www.givingloop.org/mcc

Abolish Kafala

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/06/lebanon-revised-contract-must-lead-to-end-of-kafala-system/

Fairouz, Li Beirut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE9-W1nTWyw