Women worked to death in Lebanon (guadian.co.uk)

Dalila Mahdawi, Beirut based journalist, wrote for The Guardian, on the deaths of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, on Tuesday 10 November 2009.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/10/ethiopian-women-domestic-death-lebanon

Quote:

Four Ethiopian domestic workers are thought to have killed themselves in three weeks. Lebanon must protect these women.

(...)

The spate of suicides has become so bad in recent weeks it prompted Lebanese blogger Wissam to launch the grimly named Ethiopian Suicides blog. The website is dedicated to monitoring media reports on the deaths of foreign migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. "I have a dream," Wissam says. "That migrant domestic workers will be treated humanely in Lebanon and will stop trying to commit or committing suicide."

In the last three weeks alone, Wissam notes, four Ethiopian women have died. Lebanese police say the deaths of Kassaye Atsegenet, 24, Saneet Mariam, 30, Matente Kebede Zeditu, 26, Tezeta Yalmiya, 26 were probably suicides. But as human rights activists here will testify, the truth about what happened to them may never be known because police usually only take into account the employer's testimony. Migrants who survive abuse or suicide attempts are not usually provided with a translator, meaning their version of events often does not get registered with officials.

(...)