A group of Kenyan domestic workers stranded in Lebanon demands repatriation after a blast in Beirut that led to job losses. They have been sleeping on mattresses outside Kenya’s honorary consulate in the country. PHOTO | COURTESY
Kenyan domestic workers who have been stranded in Beirut on Monday pelted the Kenyan Consulate in Lebanon with stones for the second day in a row.
The group of about 30 women some with children continued to protest outside the consulate for the consulate where they have been living.
Most of them have been sleeping on mattresses outside the consulate, others on the concrete pavement which is littered with plastic bottles.
On Monday, as night fell, they held a Kenyan flag and chanted “we want to go home,” throwing trash and rocks at the locked gate protecting the building entrance.
Their protests come as Beirut continues to recover from the port blast that killed at least 178 people and injured thousands.
Dozens have been stranded in Lebanon since the blast two weeks ago after losing their jobs.
They say they have no money for flight tickets back to their countries with the coronavirus pandemic making the situation even more complicated.
On the website of the Kenyan Honorary Consulate in Beirut, a statement asks the workers to register for repatriation.
“The Consulate of Kenya announces the registration of all the Kenyans working in Lebanon both legal and illegal who are ready to travel back home once the airports in Nairobi and Beirut are reopened,” it reads.
They are calling on the Kenyan government to fly them home immediately.
But the Kenyan Embassy in Kuwait, which is accredited to Lebanon, says the women have been rowdy and refused to cooperate with consulate officials.
On Friday, Kenya’s Ambassador to Kuwait, Halima Mohamud, said the consular’s aid to the women may delay by a week after Lebanon extended a state of emergency in the capital.
The embassy, she said, had directly written to the group leaders of Kenyans in Lebanon explaining the delays and assured that provision of emergency travel papers should start by Tuesday.
Officials say help could not arrive earlier because the women arrived in Lebanon as undocumented migrants and their employment situation in the country “was unknown,” according to the Kenyan embassy in Kuwait.
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