…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.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.
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