Beirut, November 2020
Thousands of domestic workers fled Lebanon following the first lockdown of march 2020. The country's financial collapse deepened by the pandemic encouraged a significant exodus of migrant workers. Wubit, 24 from Addis Ababa, whom I followed across her last days in the capital has been in Beirut for five years before deciding to walk through the gates of Rafic Hariri airport in November with a one-way ticket home country.
Suspended salaries, unpaid wages and growing forms of abuse towards domestic workers and not to mention Lebanon's uncertain future, contributed to this wave of departure. Ethiopians, Filipinos, Nepalese, Senegalese, Kenyan, Sri Lankans countless girls from all walks of life with the sole purpose of finding stability and a steady salary had their prospects cut short.