I knew that African workers were often abused and treated like slaves in Muslim countries, but I was surprised to hear it was so bad in Lebanon, once a thriving multicultural and multireligious nation. This is a story about how, in this case, Ethiopian women have figured out how to escape their terrible lives and get to the West (if they live).
Since May 2008, Ethiopians have been officially banned from coming to Lebanon (it is not clear which end did the banning). It is the latest in a series of bans and one of the only means of protest by the Ethiopian government against the suffering of its female citizens in Lebanon – mostly live-in domestic workers without legal protection or an embassy in the country. But when times get too rough, Ethiopian women turn to their tightly-knit networks, not to return home but to find work elsewhere. One option is to pay a smuggler to enter Greece by land or sea, and another is to marry a refugee in the hope of being resettled in a wealthy country, such as Sweden, Australia, Canada or the US. For many Ethiopians here then, Lebanon has become a transit hub, a springboard to a better life.
Some die, however, before they can escape.
While the figure of more than one death per week of domestic workers in Lebanon announced by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in August did not fail to appall the public, not many noticed that more than half of the recorded deaths over a period of one and a half years – mostly due to suicide or falling off balconies – were those of Ethiopian women. It is hardly surprising that many cannot wait to leave.
The article goes on to report how some women pay huge sums to be smuggled into Europe. But, the part that interested me most was the ‘marry a refugee strategy.’
Another way for Ethiopian women to leave Lebanon is through “marriage” to Sudanese men, whose UNHCR refugee status makes them eligible candidates for resettlement in rich countries (although out of the 111 Sudanese and 40 Africans from other countries in Lebanon who are registered as refugees at the moment, only a handful actually get resettled annually).
Meserat, whose name has also been changed, married a Sudanese man eight years ago. Meserat, according to a friend, was not in love, but she accepted the Sudanese man’s proposal because she knew he had refugee status. She hoped that her husband will get resettled in the West, since Lebanon does not grant asylum or protection to acknowledged refugees. Meserat was lucky, and after she bore her first child, her husband got a resettlement permit to the States. The couple now lives in New York with their four children.
The story reminded me of a post I did last fall about those hot Bhutanese boys—Nepali girls latching on to Bhutanese refugees soon to be resettled in the US.