Four women migrant worker deaths in three days

Al-Akhbar newspaper reported today, in a relatively long article, the death of 4 women migrant workers between the 19th and 21st of August. The full Arabic can be read here. Below is an English summary.

1. Last Saturday at 2 p.m. a Bengali maid drowned and died in the swimming pool in the villa of her employer in Rmeileh. The name of maid was not mentioned in the police report.
2. In Abi Samra, in Tripoli, on Saturday at 9 a.m."Kamalry" jumped from the 6th floor, from the balcony of the house of her employer. The police report which concluded that it was a suicide did not include her full name or even her nationality.
3. Three hours later, also in Abi Samra in Tripoli, the body of an unidentified Nepali woman was found in front of one of the buildings. The cause of death was unknown, awaiting medical examination.
4. Last Thursday morning, Ethiopian Sirek Ogapy, 29 years-old, "threw herself" from the 10th floor of her employer's house, Ahmad M. in Beirut in Sakyet El Janzeer. In this case, according to eyewitness account Ethiopian Suicides got from neighboors (what Al-Akhbar reporting and the police reporting did not say) was that there was shouting and screaming, possibly fighting, between the maid and the house owner immediately prior to the fall. The house owner is politically influential. Consequently, we believe that the police investigation won't go farther than the suicide theory.

Beysan Tay, the author of the article, quotes human rights activists who ask "why is there no proper investigation into the death of women migrant workers in Lebanon? Why do police officers jump to the suicide conclusion and close the case in less than 24 hours?".

Tay concludes by asking "Shouldn't there be an investigation into the work circumstances that pushed the migrant woman to commit suicide, if it was confirmed to be a suicide after proper investigation?"