BEIRUT: Isatta Bah wakes up from a nap in a crowded shelter on the outskirts of Beirut, clutching her baby, Blessing.
The 24-year-old from Sierra Leone spends her days waiting for an exit visa that could put her and her 1-year-old on a plane back to the West African nation. She wants to reunite with her family after what she called exploitative work conditions and sexual violence, along with the recent horrors of war in Lebanon.
“My experience in Lebanon is not good for me. I am really tired,” Bah said. “I want to go home.”
Hundreds of migrant workers in Lebanon are waiting to be repatriated after the ceasefire ending the 14-month war between the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel went into effect last month.
Lebanon has long drawn migrant workers dreaming of building better lives for their families. Enticed by promises of stable jobs and decent pay, they enter Lebanon via recruitment agencies under a sponsorship-based labor system known as Kafala — only to find themselves often trapped with confiscated passports, long hours, withheld wages and, for many, abuse.
The Kafala system has long been criticized by human rights groups, but the government rarely if ever addresses the criticism. But Bah knew little of that when she came to Lebanon in 2022. She was promised a job at a supermarket with a $200 monthly salary, she said. Instead, she was sent to care for an older woman once she arrived.
Within a month of her arrival, her 3-year-old son back home fell ill and died. She said she was not given the time to grieve and fled her employer’s house. Since her employer held her passport and other documents, Bah said she had to leave them behind.
Her experience in Lebanon then took a darker turn. One day she and five housemates were picked up by a taxi driver who said he would take them home. Instead, she said, the driver dropped them at the wrong spot. As they tried and failed to find another cab, a group of men chased them and raped them.
“Men were coming and they were cheering for us,” said Bah, who gave her consent to be named. “They beat us and they had sex with us.” She said it took her about two weeks to recover and resume work at two hotels. Without documents, migrants can hesitate to go to police.
Two months later, she and another friend found out they were pregnant.
Bah recounted the experience as she watched her baby’s wobbly footsteps.
With war, their lives became more precarious. When Israel intensified its bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs in September, Bah fled the area with her baby and friends on foot.
Not every migrant worker escaped the attacks. An estimated 37 have been killed and 150 wounded since October 2023, said Joelle Mhanna with the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
There were few places to turn. Most government-run shelters refused to take in displaced people who were not Lebanese, said activist Dea Hajj Shaheen. After supporting migrant women during previous crises in Lebanon, she stepped in again along with other volunteers.
To house over 200 women from Sierra Leone including Bah, they repurposed an abandoned space owned by her family — a former car dealership that was later a venue for pop-up events and named The Shelter.
The kitchen was alive with activity as women cooked, some dancing to Nigerian music. In another area, rows of thin mattresses lay in the dim light from broken windows. Despite the modest conditions, the women set up a Christmas tree crafted from sticks.
While some migrants have been accepted at government-run shelters, there were regular reports of others being evicted or denied access, the IOM said.
Some migrants hesitate to approach the government shelters for fear of detention or deportation, Mhanna said. “As a result, most are being hosted by embassies, NGOs and community-based organizations including churches, monasteries and other religious groups.”
The Lebanese government has not directly addressed the issue of migrant workers being rejected from government-run shelters, despite repeated calls for action from rights organizations and the United Nations.
Moving on from the shelters they found posed another challenge for migrants like Bah, as many had passports and other documents confiscated by former employers.
“We had to secure exit permits, immigration clearances and even child travel documents for the five children in this group,” said Shaheen, who coordinated the repatriation last month of 120 women and their children with the support of IOM, who chartered the flight.
IOM said it has received requests from around 10,000 migrants seeking to be repatriated, a small fraction of the over 175,000 in Lebanon.
As of Nov. 26, the IOM had supported over 400 migrants to return home. That included two charter flights for people from Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. It wasn’t clear how many more flights are planned. or to where.
Laughter and cheer filled Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport on Nov. 19. The women from Sierra Leone arrived in groups, dragging suitcases and sharing hugs. Some danced in celebration for their long-awaited flight.
“It wasn’t easy in Lebanon,” said Amanata Thullah after four years. “I am happy to be going back to my country.”
Mariam Sesay, who described herself as the head of Sierra Leone’s community in Lebanon, said there had been “a lot of distress and trauma” in recent months.
Bah was not among those leaving, but she said she and others at the shelter were happy to see friends return home.
She now awaits her turn, along with over 50 others.
At first she was told she needed official documents for her baby and the father’s consent to travel. But a lawyer waived the requirement due to her circumstances, Shaheen said.
“I wish to go back home to continue my education,” Bah said. “Since I was little, I always wanted to be a computer science student, because I’m good at that.”
She looked down at Blessing. “Now I have something to take care of,” she said. “When I watch her walk or laugh, that gives me joy.”
Migrant workers in Lebanon are trying to return home after alleged abuses and then war
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Migrant workers in Lebanon are trying to return home after alleged abuses and then war
- Hundreds of migrant workers in Lebanon are waiting to be repatriated after the ceasefire ending the war between the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel went into effect last month
Four Moroccan truck drivers disappear on Burkina-Niger border
- The Moroccan diplomatic source said the embassy was working together with Burkina Faso authorities to find the drivers
- El Hachmi urged more protection in areas of high risk as the number of Moroccan trucks crossing the Sahel continues to rise
RABAT: Four Moroccan truck drivers went missing on Saturday as they crossed the restive border area between Burkina Faso and Niger, according to a source from the Moroccan embassy in Burkina Faso and a Moroccan transport union.
Three trucks, one carrying a spare driver, disappeared as they drove without an escort from Dori in Burkina Faso to Tera in Niger, an area known for terrorists threats, the diplomatic source said.
Junta-led Burkina Faso and Niger are battling militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Daesh, whose insurgencies have destabilized Sahel states in West Africa over the past decade.
The Moroccan diplomatic source said the embassy was working together with Burkina Faso authorities to find the drivers.
Authorities in Burkina Faso have been organizing security convoys to escort trucks in the border area to protect against militant attacks, the source said.
The trucks set off after waiting for a week without getting an escort, Echarki El Hachmi, Secretary General of Morocco’s transporters’ union, told Reuters.
The trucks, loaded with infrastructure equipment, departed weeks ago from Casablanca heading to Niger, he said.
El Hachmi urged more protection in areas of high risk as the number of Moroccan trucks crossing the Sahel continues to rise.
Earlier this month, a convoy of Moroccan trucks was attacked on the Malian border with Mauritania, although there were no casualties, El Hachmi said.
President of Iraq’s Kurdistan government meets Jordanian king, UAE president
- Masrour Barzani visited Amman and Abu Dhabi to discuss developments in the Middle East
LONDON: King Abdullah II of Jordan received Masrour Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, at Basman Palace in Amman on Sunday.
They discussed current regional developments, particularly in the Gaza Strip and Syria, and the prospects for cooperation between Jordan and the Kurdistan Region to develop their ties.
Barzani acknowledged King Abdullah’s leadership in Jordan’s efforts for peace and stability in the Middle East, the Petra agency reported.
On Sunday, the Kurdish leader met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan at Qasr Al-Shati in Abu Dhabi to discuss ways to enhance cooperation between the two nations, according to the Emirates News Agency.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, deputy chairman of the Presidential Court for Special Affairs, and Sheikh Khalifa bin Tahnoon bin Mohammed Al-Nahyan, chairman of the Abu Dhabi crown prince’s court, attended the meeting along with several other sheikhs, ministers, and senior officials.
Negotiators zero in on potential deal to disarm Syria’s last battleground
- In Ankara on Wednesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani said the extensive US-backed SDF presence was no longer justified, and the new administration would not allow Syrian land to be a source of threats to Turkiye
ISTANBUL/DAMASCUS: Negotiators are zeroing in on a potential deal to resolve one of the most explosive questions looming over Syria’s future: the fate of Kurdish forces that the US considers key allies against Daesh but neighboring Turkiye regards as a national security threat.
Diplomatic and military negotiators from the United States, Turkiye, Syria and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are showing more flexibility and patience than their public statements suggest, a dozen sources told Reuters, including five directly involved in the intensive web of discussions in recent weeks.
This could set the stage for an accord in the coming months that would see some Kurdish fighters leave Syria’s restive northeast and others brought under the authority of the new defense ministry, six of the sources said.
However, many thorny issues need to be resolved, they said. These include how to integrate the SDF alliance’s well-armed and trained fighters into Syria’s security framework and administer territory under their control, which includes key oil and wheat fields.
In an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Asharq News channel on Tuesday, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said the alliance’s “basic demand” is for decentralized administration — a potential challenge to Syria’s new leadership, which wants to bring all of the country back under the government’s authority after ousting Bashar Assad last month.
Abdi indicated that the SDF has no intention of dissolving, saying it was open to linking with the defense ministry and operating according to its rules, but as “a military bloc.”
Syria’s new defense minister, Murhaf Abu Qasra, rejected that approach in an interview with Reuters on Sunday, saying the suggestion that the SDF remain one bloc “is not right.”
The former rebels now in power in Damascus have said they want all armed groups to integrate into Syria’s official forces, under a unified command. The SDF, when asked for comment, referred Reuters to its commander’s interview.
How much autonomy Kurdish factions retain likely hinges on whether incoming US president Donald Trump continues Washington’s longtime support of its Kurdish allies, according to diplomats and officials on all sides.
Trump has not spoken publicly about his intentions, including his plans for some 2,000 US troops stationed in Syria. A Trump representative did not comment.
Any deal also depends on whether Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan holds off on a threatened military offensive against the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish militia that spearheads the SDF alliance.
Ankara views them as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and is deemed a terrorist group by both Turkiye and the US
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said this month that Syria’s new authorities “should be given an opportunity to ... end the occupation and terror the YPG created,” but he did not say how long Ankara would wait for it to disarm before launching an incursion.
A Turkish Foreign Ministry source said disarming armed groups and the departure of “foreign terrorist fighters” were essential for Syria’s stability and territorial integrity, so the sooner this happens the better.
“We are voicing this expectation of ours in the strongest terms during our contacts with both the United States and the new administration in Damascus,” the source said.
INTENSIVE TALKS
US and Turkish officials have been holding “very intensive” discussions since rebels led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, launched a lightning offensive from their northwestern stronghold that deposed Assad on Dec. 8, a senior US diplomat told Reuters.
The two countries share a “common view of where things should end up,” including a belief that all foreign fighters should exit Syrian territory, the diplomat said, noting Turkish negotiators “have a very high sense of urgency” to settle things.
However, the diplomat, who like some other sources requested anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, said the talks were “hugely complex” and would take time.
Parallel talks are taking place between the US and both the SDF and HTS, Turkiye and HTS, and the SDF and HTS, officials from all sides say.
Part of a stateless ethnic group straddling Iraq, Iran, Turkiye, Armenia and Syria, Kurds had been among the few winners of the Syrian conflict, gaining control over Arab-majority areas as the US partnered with them in the campaign against Daesh. They now hold nearly a quarter of the country.
But Assad’s fall has left Syrian Kurdish factions on the back foot, with Turkiye-backed armed groups gaining ground in the northeast and the country’s new rulers in Damascus friendly with Ankara.
Turkiye, which provided direct support to some rebel groups against Assad, has emerged as one of the most influential power brokers in Syria since his fall. Like the US, it has designated HTS a terrorist group because of its Al-Qaeda past, but Ankara is believed to have significant sway over the group.
Officials on all sides worry that failure to reach a ceasefire and longer-term political accord in the northeast could destabilize Syria as it seeks to recover from a 13-year civil war that killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions and drew in countries including Russia, Iran and Israel.
Dozens of people in northern Syria have been reported killed since December in clashes between the Kurdish-led SDF and Turkiye’s allies, and in cross-border Turkish airstrikes.
Failure to resolve the fate of Kurdish factions in Syria could also undermine nascent efforts to end the PKK’s insurgency in Turkiye.
The United Nations has warned of “dramatic consequences” for Syria and the region if a political solution is not found in the northeast.
POTENTIAL TRADE-OFFS
US support for the SDF has been a source of tension with its NATO ally, Turkiye.
Washington views the SDF as a key partner in countering Daesh, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned will try to use this period to re-establish capabilities in Syria. The SDF is still guarding tens of thousands of detainees linked to the group.
Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkiye has the power to “crush” all terrorists in Syria, including Daesh and Kurdish militants.
Turkiye wants the management of camps and prisons where Daesh detainees are being held transferred to Syria’s new rulers and has offered to help them. It has also demanded that the SDF expel all foreign fighters and senior PKK members from its territory and disarm the remaining members in a way it can verify.
Abdi, the SDF commander, has shown flexibility regarding some Turkish demands, telling Reuters last month that its foreign fighters, including PKK members, would leave Syria if Turkiye agrees to a ceasefire.
The PKK said in a statement to Reuters on Thursday that it would agree to leave if the SDF maintains control of the northeast or a significant role in joint leadership.
Such assurances are unlikely to satisfy Ankara at a time when the SDF is “trying to stay alive and autonomous” in Syria, Omer Onhon, Turkiye’s last ambassador to Damascus, told Reuters.
In Ankara on Wednesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani said the extensive US-backed SDF presence was no longer justified, and the new administration would not allow Syrian land to be a source of threats to Turkiye. Standing next to him, his Turkish counterpart, Fidan, said it was time to put anti-terror pledges into practice.
Abdi told Asharq News that he has met with Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, and the two sides agreed to set up a joint military committee to decide how the SDF would integrate with the defense ministry. He described the meeting with Sharaa, who heads HTS, as positive.
Abu Qasra, the defense minister, accused SDF leaders on Sunday of “procrastinating” on the issue, saying “consolidation of all areas under the new administration ... is a right of the Syrian state.”
The new leadership believes that allowing SDF fighters to continue operating as a bloc would “risk destabilization, including a coup,” a ministry official told Reuters.
Abdi argued that a decentralized administration would not threaten Syria’s unity, saying the SDF is not demanding the kind of federalism introduced in Iraq, where Kurds have their own regional government.
Some Syrian officials and diplomats say the SDF will likely need to relinquish control of significant territory and oil revenues, gained during the war, as part of any political settlement.
In return, Kurdish factions could be granted protections for their language and culture within a decentralized political structure, said Bassam Al-Kuwatli, president of the small Syrian Liberal Party, which supports minority rights but is not involved in the talks.
A senior Syrian Kurdish source acknowledged that some such trade-offs would likely be needed but did not elaborate.
Abdi told Asharq News that the SDF was open to handing over responsibility for oil resources to the new administration, provided the wealth was distributed fairly to all provinces.
Washington has called for a “managed transition” of the SDF’s role.
The US diplomat said Assad’s ouster opens the door for Washington to eventually consider withdrawing its troops from Syria, though much depends on whether trusted forces like its Kurdish allies remain engaged in efforts to counter any Daesh resurgence.
Trump’s return to the White House on Monday has raised hopes in Turkiye of a favorable deal, given the rapport he established with Erdogan during his first term.
Trump has spoken approvingly about Erdogan’s role in Syria, calling him a “very smart guy,” and said Turkiye would “hold the key” to what happens there.
“The Americans won’t abandon (the SDF),” said Onhon, Turkiye’s former ambassador. “But the arrival of someone as unpredictable as Trump must worry them in a way too.”
Cheers and weeping as Israelis watch Gaza hostages return
- The three released women embraced their mothers at a reception center after their release
- Crowds in Tel Aviv watched on a giant screen broadcast as the handover took place
TEL AVIV/SDEROT: Thousands of Israelis gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, some cheering and some in tears, as a giant television screen broadcast the first glimpse of the first three hostages to be released under the Gaza ceasefire deal.
They watched as the three women — Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari — got out of a car in Gaza City and were handed over to Red Cross officials amid a surging crowd that was held back by armed men in camouflaged military gear, with green Hamas headbands.
“I’m excited, I was so nervous, that they would come safe and alive to their mothers’ hands. They were in the hands of terrorists for 471 days, three young women,” said Shay Dickmann, whose cousin was found slain by her Hamas captors in August.
The Israeli military shared video showing their families gathered in what appeared to be a military facility crying out in emotion as they watched footage of the handover to Israeli forces in Gaza before they were brought back into Israel.
Pictures shared by the families showed the three women embracing their mothers at a reception center, with Emily Damari beaming broadly and waving a bandaged hand missing two fingers at family on the other end of a mobile phone video call.
After a nerve-racking morning, waiting to hear whether Damari would be one of the three hostages freed on Sunday, her friends breathed a sigh of relief.
“We didn’t have any sign of life from her for a whole year and this is the first time we are seeing her, and we are seeing her walking on her two feet and we are just waiting here to hug her and say how much we love her,” said Guy Kleinberger.
They were later flown to a hospital in Tel Aviv in a helicopter that Israeli media reported was piloted by the head of the Israeli air force.
“Romi, Doron, Emily,” an entire nation embraces you,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
UNCERTAINTY SURROUNDING REMAINING HOSTAGES
The release of the three women, the first of 33 hostages due to be freed from Gaza under phase one of the deal, is in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The hostages were taken in one of the most traumatic episodes in Israel’s history, when Hamas gunmen attacked a string of communities around the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 civilians and soldiers and abducting 251 hostages — men, women, children and elderly.
But amid hope among many Israelis that the six-week ceasefire marks the beginning of the end to the war, there is deep unease about the uncertainty surrounding the remaining 94 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.
“The ceasefire is something that I hope will work out,” said Tomer Mizrahi, in Sderot, a town in southern Israel within sight of Gaza that was attacked on Oct. 7. “But as I know Hamas, you cannot even trust them one percent.”
Images of Hamas police emerging on to the streets as the ceasefire took effect underscored how far Israel remains from its originally stated war aims of destroying the Islamist group that has ruled in Gaza since 2007.
“I’m torn,” said Dafna Sharabi from Beit Aryeh-Ofarim, a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. “On the one hand there’s a ceasefire to strengthen the forces, to rest from all the madness, on the other, maybe it’s not the time,” she said.
“They should have been eliminated, wiped out,” she said. “My son was on reserve duty for a year over there ... and he sees all the Gazans returning, Hamas returning its forces to all the places he fought in.”
MEN OF MILITARY AGE NOT IN THE DEAL
After 15 months of war, Gaza lies largely in ruins. Israel’s campaign has killed almost 47,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian health ministry and displaced most of the two million people who live in the enclave.
But for many in Israel, the war will not be over while Hamas still stands and there have been a series of rallies opposing the ceasefire as a sell-out that abandons men of military age taken captive, who are not in the first batch of 33 hostages.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has already resigned and his fellow hard-liner Bezalel Smotrich has also opposed the deal and said he has been reassured that it is not the end of the war.
The Israel Democracy Institute said its latest Israeli Voice Index, conducted just before the deal was agreed, found 57.5 percent of Israelis in favor of a comprehensive agreement that would see all hostages back in return for ending the war. Twelve percent supported a partial hostage release in return for a temporary ceasefire.
Amid the mix of emotions, for some, a sense of exhaustion outweighed any concerns about the future.
“We have been waiting for this for a long time. We wanted it to be an absolute victory, I hope we get that absolute victory,” said Shlomi Elkayam, who owns a business in Sderot. “There are pros and cons, but in the end we are tired of it all. We are tired and we want everyone here at home.”
UN races to feed one million Gazans after truce
- World Food Programme trying to reach a million people within the shortest possible time
- First WFP trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south and through the Zikim crossing in the north
ROME: The UN’s World Food Programme said Sunday it was moving full throttle to get food to as many Gazans as possible after border crossings reopened as part of a long-awaited ceasefire deal.
“We’re trying to reach a million people within the shortest possible time,” the WFP’s Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told AFP, as the Rome-based UN agency’s trucks began rolling into the strip.
“We’re moving in with wheat flour, ready to eat meals, and we will be working all fronts trying to restock the bakeries,” Skau said, adding the agency would attempt to provide nutritional supplements to the most malnourished.
An initial 42-day truce between Israel and Hamas is meant to enable a surge of sorely needed humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory after 15 months of war.
“The agreement is for 600 trucks a day... All the crossings will be open,” Skau said.
The first WFP trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south and through the Zikim crossing in the north, the agency said in a statement, as it began trying to pull “the war-ravaged territory back from starvation.”
“We have 150 trucks lined up for every day for the next at least 20 days,” Skau said, adding that the WFP was “hopeful that the border crossings will be open and efficient.”
There needs to be “an environment inside (Gaza) that is secure enough for our teams to move around,” so that food “does not just get over the border but also gets into the hands of the people.”
“It seems so far that things have been working relatively well.... We need to now sustain that over several days over weeks,” he said.
Before the ceasefire came into effect, WFP was operating just five out of the 20 bakeries it partners with due to dwindling supplies of fuel and flour, as well as insecurity in northern Gaza.
“We’re hoping that we will be up and running on all those bakeries as soon as possible,” Skau said, stressing that it was “one of our top priorities” to get bread to “tens of thousands of people each day.”
“It also has a psychological effect to be able to put warm bread into the hands of the people.”
WFP also wants to “get the private sector and commercial goods in there as soon as possible,” he said.
That would mean the UN agency could replace ready meals with vouchers and cash for people to buy their own food “to bring back some dignity” and allow them “frankly to start rebuilding their lives.”
WFP said in a statement that it has enough food pre-positioned along the borders — and on its way to Gaza — to feed over a million people for three months.
Vast areas of Gaza have been devastated by Israel’s retaliatory assault on the territory after the October 7 Hamas attack last year sparked the war.
The attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 46,913 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
