(Eagle News) — The Department of Foreign Affairs reported the death of a Filipina household service worker in Beirut, Lebanon who reportedly committed suicide.
“It is with deep sadness that the Department of Foreign Affairs announces that the Filipina household service worker who was taken in by the Philippine Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, as ward at the POLO shelter on 22 May 2020 and reportedly jumped from a room she was sharing with two other OFWs in the morning of 23 May 2020 has passed away today, the DFA said in a statement posted on Sunday, May 24.
“The Embassy was able to speak to the Filipina’s eldest sister in the Philippines as well as her cousin in Lebanon to convey its condolences. It also gave assurances in extending assistance on the possibility of bringing her remains back to the Philippines. As of the moment, Beirut is still under lockdown and international commercial flights in Lebanon are yet to resume,” the DFA statement said.
Other details of the incident are currently being investigated.
An estimated 250,000 domestic workers — mostly from Ethiopia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka — live in Lebanon, many in conditions condemned by rights groups.
Those conditions have worsened in recent months as Lebanon is grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades, as well as a coronavirus lockdown.
Some Lebanese families have started paying their home help in the depreciating local currency, while others are now unable to pay them at all, with increasing reports of domestic workers being evicted onto the streets.
A sponsorship system known as “kafala” excludes maids, nannies and carers from Lebanon’s labour law, and leaves them at the mercy of their employers, who pay wages as low as $150 a month.
The death of the Filipina domestic worker comes after a visit to the embassy shelter by a delegation from Lebanon’s National Human Rights Commission.
It also called on Lebanese authorities to “ensure that migrant domestic workers are protected from exploitative working conditions during the lockdown”.
with a report by Agence France Presse)
