BEIRUT: The Lebanese government should investigate the deaths of eight migrant domestic workers who died in October, and the reasons behind the unnaturally high death rate among the community, leading rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday. According to recent media reports, eight women died last month. Sunit Bholan of Nepal, 22, reportedly committed suicide, Kassaye Etsegenet of Ethiopia, 23, died after reportedly jumping from the seventh floor of a building in Beirut’s Gemmayzeh neighborhood, Zeditu Kebede Matente of Ethiopia, 26, was found dead in the south Lebanon village of Haris hanging from an olive tree.

Saneet Mariam of Ethiopia, 30, died after falling from the balcony of her employer’s house in the town of Mastita, and Mina Rokaya, of Nepal, 24, died after being transferred from her employer’s house in Blat to hospital. 

And Tezeta Yalmoya of Ethiopia, 26, died after falling from the third floor of the apartment building where she worked in Abra, near Sidon. She reportedly fell while cleaning the balcony. Newspapers in Madagascar also reported the deaths of two Malagasy women. 

The first worker, identified as Mampionona, reportedly fell from the third floor while cleaning the balcony. She had arrived in Lebanon on September 1. The other, identified as Vololona, died after reportedly jumping from the fourth floor. 

“The death toll last month is clear evidence that the government isn’t doing enough to fix the difficult working conditions these women face,” said Nadim Houry, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. 

“The government needs to explain why so many women who came to Lebanon to work end up leaving the country in coffins,” he added. 

A diplomat of the country from which one of the dead women came told HRW: “These women are under pressure, with no means to go away. Their passports are seized and they are often locked away in their employer’s house. It is like they are living in a cage.” 

HRW urged the official steering committee that works to improve the status of domestic workers to begin tracking deaths and injuries, to ensure that the police properly investigate them and to develop a concrete strategy to reduce these deaths. 

The organization also urged governments of the migrant workers’ countries of origin to increase the services at their diplomatic missions in Lebanon by providing counseling and shelter for workers in distress. – The Daily Star