Afia Ohemeng
Over the years, the Middle East has gained notoriety for being a center of modern day slavery. Nonetheless many citizens of Sub-Saharan Africa have a shocking interest in traveling to these areas in search of greener pastures.
Those who are able to survive the harsh conditions are mostly willing to share their horrific stories and advice others against making the same grace decisions they did.
Amazingly, many are those who feel that they are not going to experience what the others say. They go through treacherous means only to arrive and be put to work as sex workers or poached for their organs.
Such is the tragic story of Faustina Tay whose battered body was found in a car park. The car park was under her employers’ fourth-storey home in Beirut.
Faustina’s body was discovered between 3 and 4am on March 14, 2020.
FAUSTINA TAY’S JOURNEY TO LEBANON
Almost 11 months ago, Faustina had been running a small noodle business (popularly known as “Indomie” ) in Accra. She run the business with some financial help from her brother Joshua Demanya, who also works as a driver.
In an interview with Al Jazeera Joshua said that he had advised his sister against her decision to go to Lebanon “because there have been stories of people who go there and suffer so much they run away”.
Tay allegedly ignored her brother’s advice and made the decision to move to Lebanon. She arrived in Beirut on May 5. Upon her arrival, she begun working at Hussein Dia’s apartment who owned the agency that brought her to Lebanon. Dia lives with his wife Mona, and their three children, the last born being 17years.
From Faustina’s account, she slept on a sofa in the kitchen. She also complained about being overworked with no days off and having barely six hours of sleep.
Faustina soon regretted her decision to leave Ghana. She texted her brother in November 2019: “I should have stayed [and] continued with my business.”
ACCOUNT OF FAUSTINA’S ABUSE FROM EMPLOYERS
In January, she reportedly told her employers that she could not work for them any more. She also requested to be sent home. They refused to grant her requests.
On January 16, Faustina said Dia beat her and took her to Kamal’s agency for another beating from Kamal and an employee of his Hussein.
Tay told the group (This Is Lebanon) that Dia and Ali Kamal, the owner of the domestic worker’s agency that had brought her to Lebanon, had each beaten her twice between January 16 and March 6.
In the messages, Tay repeatedly expressed concerns that speaking about her ordeal could lead to more abuse, and the confiscation of her phone, which she said had taken place once before.
She also feared much worse.
“I’m scared. I’m scared; they might kill me,” she said, in a chilling voice note to activists.
On March 12, Tay sent a series of pictures to her brother, appearing to show an inflamed hand, a bruise on her forearm and a scratch underneath her eye that she said were caused by the beatings.
She also shared a picture of a bloody tissue that she said was the result of a nosebleed.
Despite the abuse, she described, Tay expressed a strong will to live.
“I’m very, very weak,” she said in a voice message, describing pain in her wrist, legs and neck.
Kamal informed Tay that the only way she would get back home was if she worked two more months with the Dia family, to pay for her ticket back to Ghana
But when the agreement came due in March, she contacted This Is Lebanon and said Dia was refusing to let her leave. A few days later, on March 10, she said Dia, Kamal and Hussein beat her again.
“My boss beat me mercilessly yesterday [and] dis (sic) morning he took me to the office [and] I was beaten again, this is the second time they beat me up in the office.”
Dia said he had taken Tay to the agency with the intent of letting her travel, but received a call two hours later from the agency: “We’ve worked it out, she’ll travel in July.”
Demanya said his sister had agreed “out of fear
“Please, help me. Help me to go back to my country for treatment. Please, I don’t want to die here.”- Faustina
LAST DAYS OF FAUSTINA TAY
Faustina Tay sent a final message to the activist group… about the abuse she was facing on March 13.
Almost 18 hours later, Faustina’s body was found.
”God please help me,” –
Text from Faustina Tay
The forensic doctor who examined her body found that her untimely death was caused by a head injury “as a result of falling from a high place and crashing into a solid body”.The doctor found “no marks of physical assault”
According to a police report, her death is being investigated as a suicide since a search of the employers’ home found no signs of a struggle.
Hussein Dia, her employer claims he and his family were asleep when Faustina died. He also denied ever assaulting her – “I never laid a hand on her.”
Contrary to his statement, in conversations with activist group This Is Lebanon and her brother in Ghana she provided detailed accounts of repeated physical abuse.
An adviser to Labour Minister Lamia Yammine said that the names of Tay’s employers had been noted and the ministry would be informed if they applied to be allowed to employ another domestic worker.
She said they would be permanently blacklisted “if it is proven later on that the suicide was caused by abuse”.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
