- Dozens of Ethiopian maids have been dumped outside the Ethiopian embassy in Beirut to sleep on the pavement by employers who can no longer afford to pay their salaries.
- Lebanese employers have routinely been abandoning domestic stuff by taking them to the Ethiopian embassy — which has not opened its doors to the workers — and leaving them there to sleep on the street.
- BBC footage shows three Ethiopian maids abandoned outside the embassy within the space of a single hour.
Penniless Ethiopian maids have been dumped outside the Ethiopian embassy in Beirut to sleep on the pavement by employers who can no longer afford to pay their salaries.
Footage filmed by BBC News and a Telegraph report this week detailed how Lebanese employers have routinely been abandoning domestic stuff. The women are left at the Ethiopian embassy — which has not opened its doors to the workers — and have no choice but to sleep on the street.
There are around 250,000 migrant workers in Lebanon, according to DPA
The first group of 34 women who were dumped by employers outside the embassy were taken into a shelter last week, the Telegraph reported.
"All 34 Ethiopian domestic workers who are stuck in front of their embassy will be taken later Thursday to the Caritas shelter," said Huson Sayyah, the head of foreign workers at the Beirut charity Caritas, according to DPA news agency.
But word appears to have spread around Beirut since, and dozens more workers have been left to sleep on the pavement outside the embassy since.
In the BBC footage, correspondent Martin Patience said the crew watched three Ethiopian maids being abandoned at the embassy in a single hour.
"All 34 Ethiopian domestic workers who are stuck in front of their embassy will be taken later Thursday to the Caritas shelter," said Huson Sayyah, the head of foreign workers at the Beirut charity Caritas, according to DPA news agency.
Farah Salka, Director of Lebanon's Anti-Racism Movement, told the BBC that the workers exist outside the labor laws and had zero employment rights or protection. "This system enables modern-day slavery in our houses," she said.