When 21-year-old Lensa Lelisa Tufa and another (as of yet unidentified) Ethiopian migrant workers attempted to flee the house of their employers in Beirut on March 11, 2018, they saw no other alternatives but to jump from the balcony on the second floor.
But Lensa was the only one who jumped. The other woman, fearing injury upon seeing Lensa’s state, did not.
When Lensa was admitted to hospital with two broken legs, she recorded a five-minute-long video with the help of her aunt Ganeth explaining her situation.
The video, in Amharic, was then uploaded on March 26 by the page “This is Lebanon“, which focuses on exposing abuses faced by migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, with English subtitles.
It was soon revealed that the employers run a haute couture fashion company called Eleanore Couture.
In response, “This is Lebanon” organised a protest which was attended by around 40 activists in front of company in Jdeideh, in the northern part of the Greater Beirut area.
Lensa’s emplyer, Eleanore Couture, threatens to send Lensa home as a corpse. Her mother speaks out:
-GlobalVoices.org
