Beirut Blast Final Blow for Lebanon's Migrants

People walk past destroyed traditional Lebanese houses, following a massive explosion at the port area, in Beirut, Lebanon, August 14, 2020. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
People walk past destroyed traditional Lebanese houses, following a massive explosion at the port area, in Beirut, Lebanon, August 14, 2020. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
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Beirut Blast Final Blow for Lebanon's Migrants

People walk past destroyed traditional Lebanese houses, following a massive explosion at the port area, in Beirut, Lebanon, August 14, 2020. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
People walk past destroyed traditional Lebanese houses, following a massive explosion at the port area, in Beirut, Lebanon, August 14, 2020. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

Thousands of migrant workers in Lebanon are desperate to return home as a coronavirus lockdown began this week, adding to woes caused by a financial crisis and this month's port blast that wrecked swathes of the capital Beirut.

The explosion has damaged homes where many migrant workers living in precarious conditions now risk eviction as job losses mount, said the United Nations migration agency, IOM, in an appeal for $10 million to respond to the blast.

"I was very scared. I felt a very heavy wind and the building was shaking so hard as if it was going to fall," said Sierra Leonean migrant Lucy Turay who lives in an apartment with 20 people after escaping abusive employers.

"Everything is going from bad to worse. We just want to go home," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Beirut, adding that she can no long find work as a domestic helper to pay for her siblings' education back home.

Lebanon hosts about 250,000 foreign workers, some working illegally, who are employed under the country's kafala sponsorship system which binds them to one employer and can lead to abuses, according to human rights groups.

Migrants, mainly from Ethiopia, Bangladesh and the Philippines, make up about 25,000 of the 300,000 people affected by the explosion, and need food, shelter, cash for rent, medical aid, mental health care and support to return home, IOM said.

It said at least 15 migrant workers died and 150 were injured in the blast, which killed some 178 people in total, injured more than 6,000 and pushed the government to resign.

Workers who were laid off amid the crisis or are undocumented cannot afford tickets home and have been calling on their embassies to repatriate them, said Zeina Ammar, advocacy manager at Lebanese migrant rights group Anti-Racism Movement.

"There's more homelessness, there's more hunger, there are mental health conditions," Ammar said.

Days after the explosion, a group of Kenyan women, some whose homes were damaged, protested outside their honorary consulate in Beirut asking to be repatriated for free.

Lebanon's labor ministry said it was working with the consulate and humanitarian organizations toward finding practical solutions for their return.

The Kenyan embassy in Kuwait, which oversees Lebanon, said in a statement that it would help workers with emergency documents and negotiate to waive overstay penalty fees but that returnees would have to fly back at their own expense.

IOM said in its emergency appeal that it aims to help 2,500 stranded migrants return home, with poverty levels estimated to reach 50% of the population in Lebanon and a rise in reports of xenophobic incidents as a result of COVID-19.



Israel Warfare Methods 'Consistent With Genocide', Says UN Committee

Israel's warfare practices in Gaza "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide", according to the United Nations Special Committee - AFP
Israel's warfare practices in Gaza "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide", according to the United Nations Special Committee - AFP
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Israel Warfare Methods 'Consistent With Genocide', Says UN Committee

Israel's warfare practices in Gaza "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide", according to the United Nations Special Committee - AFP
Israel's warfare practices in Gaza "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide", according to the United Nations Special Committee - AFP

Israel's warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, a special UN committee said Thursday, accusing the country of "using starvation as a method of war".

The United Nations Special Committee pointed to "mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians", in a fresh report covering the period from Hamas's deadly October 7 attack in Israel last year through to July, AFP reported.

"Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury," it said in a statement.

Israel's warfare practices in Gaza "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide", said the committee, which has for decades been investigating Israeli practices affecting rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel, it charged, was "using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population".

A UN-backed assessment at the weekend warned that famine was imminent in northern Gaza.

Thursday's report documented how Israel's extensive bombing campaign in Gaza had decimated essential services and unleashed an environmental catastrophe with lasting health impacts.

By February this year, Israeli forces had used more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives across the Gaza Strip, "equivalent to two nuclear bombs", the report pointed out.

"By destroying vital water, sanitation and food systems, and contaminating the environment, Israel has created a lethal mix of crises that will inflict severe harm on generations to come," the committee said.

The committee said it was "deeply alarmed by the unprecedented destruction of civilian infrastructure and the high death toll in Gaza", where more than 43,700 people have been killed since the war began, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The staggering number of deaths raised serious concerns, it said, about Israel's use of artificial intelligence-enhanced targeting systems in its military operations.

"The Israeli military’s use of AI-assisted targeting, with minimal human oversight, combined with heavy bombs, underscores Israel’s disregard of its obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants and take adequate safeguards to prevent civilian deaths," it said.

It warned that reported new directives lowering the criteria for selecting targets and increasing the previously accepted ratio of civilian to combatant casualties appeared to have allowed the military to use AI systems to "rapidly generate tens of thousands of targets, as well as to track targets to their homes, particularly at night when families shelter together".

The committee stressed the obligations of other countries to urgently act to halt the bloodshed, saying that "other States are unwilling to hold Israel accountable and continue to provide it with military and other support".