Libanons gästarbetare befinner sig i en mycket svår situation.

 I Libanon finns det uppskattningsvis 130 000 gästarbetare från framförallt Sri Lanka,Etiopien och Filippinerna men utöver det finns tusentals från Indien och Bangaldesh i landet. Sedan stridigheterna inleddes har situationen för de redan utsatta migranterna och deras familjer förvärrats.  
-Vi vädjar till arbetsgivarna att de hjälper till att betala de anställdas hemresa och inte bara släpper av dem utanför ambassaderna utan ett öre på fickan, säger Najla Chahda, direktor för Caritas Migrationscenter i Beirut.

Pengar till transporter har blivit ett stort problem. På bara en vecka har kostnaderna tiofaldigats. Exempelvis är normalpriset för att hyra en buss 200 dollar,nu är priset uppe i 2500 dollar. Caritas Internationalis vädjar om att nätverket ska ställa upp med 500 000 dollar under de närmaste tre månaderna bara för Migrationscentrets arbete. Utöver det ligger en vädjan ute om 1.4 miljoner dollar för att förse 75 000 människor som bor i tillfälliga läger med mat och det mest nödvändiga förutom medicinsk vård.   

Caritas Libanons personal och frivilliga gör nu stora ansträngningar för att hjälpa så många som möjligt av landets migranter att ta sig hem. Man prioriterar framförallt de som har barn, de papperslösa och de som internerades när oroligheterna trappades upp.
Ledningen för Caritas Migrationscenter har satt press på de libanesiska myndigheterna att säkerställa att  de internerade migranterna släpps så att de kan få åka hem.  

Caritas Helps Poor Migrants in Lebanon to get Home

Vatican City, 27 July 2006 -- The Caritas Migrants Center in Lebanon continues to shuttle impoverished Sri Lankans and Ethiopians from Beirut to Damascus, and from there homeward, but the organisation says it is running low on funds as the cost of the trip is now ten times what it cost just last week.

“Our biggest difficulty is transport,” said Najla Chahda, director of the Caritas Migrants Center in Beirut. “A bus would normally cost $200, but now to hire a bus to get to Damascus, it’s costing us $2500.”

“We’re also appealing to the employers of these workers, that they not just drop them off at their embassy, but also help them to pay for their trip home,” Ms. Chahda said. “Most people just dump them off, leaving them penniless.”

The Migrants Center has so far ferried three separate groups to safety across the border in Syria since Israel unleashed its retaliatory assault on Lebanon two weeks ago. Ms. Chahda explained that currently there are some 3000 Sri Lankans, mostly women who work as cheap domestic help in Lebanon, sleeping on the street in front of their country’s embassy. The Sri Lankan embassy says it has about 5000 people who are seeking help to return home, but that number increases each day.

Two separate groups, each of about 300 Sri Lankans, and a group of 300 Ethiopian workers have been aided by Caritas to return home and escape the violence that has erupted between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. Once they reach safety in Tartous, just over the border in Syria, they can stay in a temporary shelter provided by the local NGO Terre des Hommes before moving on to Damascus. Caritas Syria has also helped to arrange for accomodation in some cases.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) helped to pay for the first trip.

There are more than 90,000 documented Sri Lankans working in Lebanon, mostly as cheap domestic help and child minders. There are at least another 20,000 Ethiopians, 20,000 Filipinos, and many thousands of Indians and Bangladeshis.

The Migrants Center pressed the Lebanese authorities in order to secure the release of all the migrant workers being held in detention centers, which was done just one day after hostilities erupted anew. In fact, Ms. Chahda said, another center had to be opened in the mountains in Raifoun in order to accommodate everyone. Hundreds of women are sheltering at the new location, in a convent run by the Daughters of Charity.

“We first gave priority to the detainees,” Ms. Chahda said, “and then to women with children, and then to people who have been in Lebanon for many years but have no papers.”

“The people who have no papers risk being arrested again as they try to get out of the country,” she explained.

The Caritas Migrants Center helps those without papers to get clearance to leave the country.

The Caritas Confederation has increased its appeal to help fund the Migrants Center’s activities for the next three months to $500,000, nearly triple the original amount, due to the exorbitant costs of helping to repatriate foreign workers caught in the middle of the conflict. The Confederation has a separate appeal for  $US 1.4 million on behalf of Caritas Lebanon, which is providing food and basic relief items, as well as medical care, to 75,000 people living in temporary shelters throughout the country.

Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development, and social service organisations present in over 200 countries and territories.

For more information, contact: 

Nancy McNally, media officer

Tel: +39 06 69879752

mcnally@caritas.va

www.caritas.org

Caritas Helps Poor Migrants in Lebanon to get Home

Vatican City, 27 July 2006 -- The Caritas Migrants Center in Lebanon continues to shuttle impoverished Sri Lankans and Ethiopians from Beirut to Damascus, and from there homeward, but the organisation says it is running low on funds as the cost of the trip is now ten times what it cost just last week.

“Our biggest difficulty is transport,” said Najla Chahda, director of the Caritas Migrants Center in Beirut. “A bus would normally cost $200, but now to hire a bus to get to Damascus, it’s costing us $2500.”

“We’re also appealing to the employers of these workers, that they not just drop them off at their embassy, but also help them to pay for their trip home,” Ms. Chahda said. “Most people just dump them off, leaving them penniless.”

The Migrants Center has so far ferried three separate groups to safety across the border in Syria since Israel unleashed its retaliatory assault on Lebanon two weeks ago. Ms. Chahda explained that currently there are some 3000 Sri Lankans, mostly women who work as cheap domestic help in Lebanon, sleeping on the street in front of their country’s embassy. The Sri Lankan embassy says it has about 5000 people who are seeking help to return home, but that number increases each day.

Two separate groups, each of about 300 Sri Lankans, and a group of 300 Ethiopian workers have been aided by Caritas to return home and escape the violence that has erupted between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. Once they reach safety in Tartous, just over the border in Syria, they can stay in a temporary shelter provided by the local NGO Terre des Hommes before moving on to Damascus. Caritas Syria has also helped to arrange for accomodation in some cases.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) helped to pay for the first trip.

There are more than 90,000 documented Sri Lankans working in Lebanon, mostly as cheap domestic help and child minders. There are at least another 20,000 Ethiopians, 20,000 Filipinos, and many thousands of Indians and Bangladeshis.

The Migrants Center pressed the Lebanese authorities in order to secure the release of all the migrant workers being held in detention centers, which was done just one day after hostilities erupted anew. In fact, Ms. Chahda said, another center had to be opened in the mountains in Raifoun in order to accommodate everyone. Hundreds of women are sheltering at the new location, in a convent run by the Daughters of Charity.

“We first gave priority to the detainees,” Ms. Chahda said, “and then to women with children, and then to people who have been in Lebanon for many years but have no papers.”

“The people who have no papers risk being arrested again as they try to get out of the country,” she explained.

The Caritas Migrants Center helps those without papers to get clearance to leave the country.

The Caritas Confederation has increased its appeal to help fund the Migrants Center’s activities for the next three months to $500,000, nearly triple the original amount, due to the exorbitant costs of helping to repatriate foreign workers caught in the middle of the conflict. The Confederation has a separate appeal for  $US 1.4 million on behalf of Caritas Lebanon, which is providing food and basic relief items, as well as medical care, to 75,000 people living in temporary shelters throughout the country.

Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development, and social service organisations present in over 200 countries and territories.

For more information, contact: 

Nancy McNally, media officer

Tel: +39 06 69879752

mcnally@caritas.va

www.caritas.org