Brutal attack on two women – caught on video – has led to deportation order against one victim, prompting fresh anger over mistreatment of maids in the country

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A Kenyan woman in Lebanon who was brutally assaulted in a mob attack that was caught on video is being deported, sparking fresh criticism over the country’s treatment of migrant domestic workers.



In footage that prompted anger on social media, a man is seen holding two Kenyan women by the hair and repeatedly hitting them while they scream in pain in the Beirut suburb of Bourj Hammoud. A crowd then gathers around them, and others join in.

The victims, named only as Rosa and Shamila, were arrested after the incident on 17 June and appeared in a military court on Wednesday. This week, Lebanon’s directorate of general security issued a deportation order against Shamila, which makes it unlikely that she will see the case resolved.



“General security issued a deportation order for my client, Shamila, in violation of her basic human rights of a fair trial and to defend herself in court,” Nermine Sibai, a lawyer representing the two women, told the Guardian.

She added that she had been prevented from seeing her client before a hearing on the case on Wednesday.

The incident and subsequent fallout has drawn attention to the mistreatment of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, where employment laws for foreign workers have been likened to modern-day slavery.

An estimated 200,000 migrant domestic workers live in the country. Most come from Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Kenya, to work as live-in maids.

Abuse of domestic workers is so rife that some countries have banned citizens from working in Lebanon. Despite the ban, many still come, in the hope of sending money home to support their families.

Suicides and deaths from botched escapes are common. According to the general security agency’s own figures, the bodies of migrant domestic workers were repatriated to their home countries at a rate of two per week between January 2016 and April 2017.

Rights groups blame the high levels of abuse on the kafala (sponsorship) system through which migrant workers are employed, and which ties their legal status in the country to their employer.

“It gives employers enormous power over the worker, and opens the door to exploitation and abuse,” according to Bassem Khawaja, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.

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In response to this latest attack, the Kenyan government demanded an apology from Lebanese authorities and called for the culprits “to meet the full force of the law”.

Salim Jreissati, Lebanon’s justice minister, called the attack “shocking” and “abhorrently racist and different from the Lebanon people’s manners”. He said he had asked the general security agency to settle the two women’s residency status – a request that appears to have been ignored.

The man seen attacking the women in the video, together with a military officer and a Lebanese woman who joined in the beating, have been arrested.

But the targeting of domestic workers who are seeking justice through the legal system has become a pattern, according to Amnesty International.

“The decision by the general security to deport the Kenyan woman who was brutally assaulted in Bourj Hammoud reflects the injustice faced by migrant domestic workers in Lebanon,” Amnesty said in a statement. “Whenever they seek justice, they are faced by deportation orders.”

Shamila’s lawyer has not been told the reason for her deportation.