Posted on Youtube on thursday July 23 2020, the song “Bye and Bye” composed by
former teacher turned domestic worker Lucy Turay, 27, has had more than two
thousand views. The first eight lines of the song explain the dire
circumstances, Lucy and 33 other Sierra Leonean girls/women now find
themselves in Beirut, the capital of troubled Lebanon. They are unable to leave, with no
papers, and packed inside one apartment – all 34 of them.
There is a time in our country when things are not easy
To be fed is a problem, we are homeless and naked
So we had to go to the Middle East for us to find jobs
There we found ourselves into slavery
They will beat us, they will kill us
There is no one to help us
We are working without payment there is no one to help us
They don’t care for what we eat, they don’t care for where we sleep
On a crackly line to Beirut today Wednesday July 29 2020, Lucy explains the
abysmal circumstances that led her to compose such a melancholic song;
“I had been thrown out from where I worked as a domestic worker. I was on
the streets with no food, no money. After two days, I saw some bread in a
dustbin. I picked it and ate it. One Lebanese man saw me and screamed and
said he will call the police. Another man saw me and said he will help me. He
took me to his house. He gave me some money and said I should bath and we
have sex. I refused. He beat me and threw me out of his house”
Back on the street again, Lucy said she composed the song. She has two other
songs which are still unrecorded.
Almost all the 34 girls, the oldest is a woman of forty five, have different variants
of the same story. Lucy thought she was flying to Lebanon for a teaching job
but ended up working as a domestic worker. Fatmata Koroma is the youngest
in the group. She arrived in Lebanon in September 2019 and has received a
salary of $200 only once.(Domestic workers end between $150-$300 monthly
in Lebanon) The agency she works for did not pay her anything for the first two
months that she worked. In her second job, she worked with an old couple. The
husband who was on oxygen she said, still managed to squeeze her breast
each time his wife was out of sight. She says she had problems working with
the couple because she did not understand their language. She was eventually
thrown out when the couple complained she ate too much and did not know
her job well. “I did the best I could for the couple but they still threw me on the
streets”. She was eventually directed to meet Lucy who by this time had a
benefactor
The Benefactor
Aline Deschamps, a French/Thai photographer who met Lucy and the girls in Beirut while working on a story on domestic workers in Lebanon and how the COVID-19 lockdown impacted their lives.
“There are 34 and they are all victims of human trafficking. Most of them escaped from abusive households so they don’t
have their passports with them. They don’t have any representation. It is a really surrealist situation” Aline told me.
According to Aline, the case of the fifteen Sierra Leonean girls was remarkable because “… they were not dumped on the streets because of the lockdown. They actually escaped from all the
abuses, all the unpayments of salaries, all the human trafficking and all the physical and mental violence that they had to go through”. She said after writing the article, she could not
abandon them and so she organized a fundraiser which has helped pay for a flat for them, food and medication and she is now trying to raise money to
repatriate them back to Sierra Leone. Less than a tenth of the $50.000 they
need to be repatriated has been raised and there is no indication this will ever
happen.
Sierra Leone Consul official turns back on Nationals
Lucy Turay says when she managed to get the contact number of an official at
the Sierra Leonean consul in Beirut and communicated with him, he refused all
pleas for assistance. She added that when she and the other girls
demonstrated in front of the consulate, some at the consulate called the police
to arrest or disperse them. After hearing they just wanted to be repatriated
home and were not causing any material damage to the consulate, the police
left. The consul officer she had been communicating with later said he had
resigned, apparently to try to get the girls off his back. According to Lucy,
Moussa Sasso, president of the Sierra Leone community in Beirut helped her
once and she is not sure where the funding came from.
Like All unskilled workers in Lebanon, Lucy and her friends are victims of the
“Kafala system”, an exploitative system in middle eastern countries used to
monitor migrant labourers working primarily in the construction and domestic
sectors. The system requires all unskilled labourers to have an in country
sponsor (usually their employer) who is responsible for their visas and legal
status. Employers usually seize the passports of the workers with legal chance
of legal repercussions to them. None of the 34 Sierra Leone girls have
passports now.
Repatriation to Sierra Leone
Lucy and all the girls have just one wish now; to return home to Sierra Leone. “I
want all girls to stop coming to the Middle East because there is too much suffering
here” she added.
To return, they will still need the help of the Sierra Leone consulate for travel
documentation and support from their home country to pay for the
repatriation and back home, they wish they are set up in small businesses to help them remain home. They initially eft because of lack of jobs
For now, returning home will be the first step towards ending the nightmare.
Lebanon is experiencing a difficult economic meltdown that started late last
year now compounded by COVID-19. Now with no jobs, and depending for food
and rents from their photographer benefactor Aline Deschamps, things are not
looking good for the girls. An online appeal for funds to get them repatriated
has raised less than $4000 of the $50.000 needed to send them back home.
Only the prompt intervention of the Sierra Leone government that has a duty
to its citizens may end the uncertainty that looms ahead for the 34 girls.
Foot Note. Names of the girls
Names of Girls
Lucy Turay, Makallay Thoronka, Isata Tommy, Mariatu Mansary, Mariama Koroma, Aminata A Jolloh, Marian Marvia, Zaniab Turay, Mary, Koroma, Margret Bao, Isatu Bangura, Maritu Conteh, Mariama Bah, Fatmata koroma, Aminata Turay, Mariama Sow, Mabinty Karama, Elizabeth S Thullah, Esther Thoronka, Fatmata j kargbo, Aminata I Sesay, Kadiatu Kamara, Hawanatu Kamara, Kadiatu Conteh, Maritu Tutu Kamara, Masu Mustarpha Kamara, Isata Suma, Hawa Bangura, Zainab Neeh, Warrah sesay, Fatmata Barie, Sallay Ngaujah
