Lebanon has provided temporary shelter for 35 homeless Ethiopian domestic workers who had camped outside their consulate in the Hazmieh area near Beirut after being abandoned by their employers, the labor ministry said Thursday.
"We provided this shelter to get them off the street and we are now in touch with international agencies and the Ethiopian consulate to look for a long-term solution," ministry spokesman Hussein Zalghout told AFP.
The ministry organized buses late Wednesday that transported about 35 women left stranded outside the consulate to a hotel in Beirut after they spent the day with their belongings, some of them crying.
Lebanon is in the midst of an economic and financial crisis made worse by the lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Some Lebanese families have started paying their home help in depreciating local currency, while others have stopped paying at all, with increasing reports of domestic workers being thrown onto the street.
In recent weeks, dozens of Ethiopian women have camped outside their consulate.
They include those who were abandoned by their employers, without pay or passports, as well as undocumented migrants and day laborers who have been unable to find work, according to Amnesty International.
Labor Minister Lamia Yammine Douaihy had on Wednesday condemned the "unfortunate scene" outside the consulate and pledged to take necessary measures against employers.
Employers "who left migrant workers stranded in front of the consulate will be punished by law and will be placed on a blacklist that prevents them from hiring foreign domestic workers again," the ministry spokesman said.
He said the ministry would press employers to settle all outstanding payments they owe their domestic workers before they are repatriated, otherwise they will be punished by law.
Last month, the General Security agency said it had started organizing repatriation flights for those who wished to return home.
On May 21, dozens of Ethiopians workers were repatriated, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.
A quarter of a million migrants are employed as domestic workers in Lebanon, the large majority of them Ethiopian.
