11 Kenyans evacuated from Lebanon as Israel-Hezbollah war looms
Kenya has evacuated 11 citizens from Lebanon amid growing fears of a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Diaspora Affairs Principal Secretary Roseline Njogu on Thursday said the first lot of Kenyans arrived over the weekend and evacuation was ongoing.
“Those who register and say that they are in trouble are going to be evacuated because this is a purely voluntary exercise,” she told the Nation, adding that the Kenyan government would be able to provide emergency flights.
“We have around 26,000 Kenyans in Lebanon, and 1,500 have registered with us for evacuation.”
Lebanon’s ongoing economic collapse has severely affected its migrant domestic workers, many of whom are now seeking repatriation.
The PS urged those facing challenges to ensure that they are registered so that such cases can be urgently addressed.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry also directed Kenyans with family members in Lebanon to call +25411475700 to facilitate security coordination.
“Anyone who has any kind of problem needs to contact us on the numbers we have issued. Anybody who has an immigration problem should contact us,” she said.
The majority of the women work as domestic workers under the controversial Kafala system that is used to monitor migrant workers across parts of West Asia.
The system emerged in the 1950s and bonds employees to their masters.
Kenyan Eulita Jerop who spoke to BBC narrated how she has been denied to leave the country despite the escalating tension.
“I want to go home,” she said.
But the terms of her employment where she works as a domestic worker make it difficult for her to leave, despite fears of an all-out war in the country.
The 35-year-old has been working there for the past 14 months.
“It was so scary. We were told it wasn’t bombs, but it was [planes breaking] the sound barrier,” she says. “But the sounds were hitting so hard.”
Her panic is shared by many others in her WhatsApp group of fellow domestic workers, she adds.
Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group have traded fire across the border on an almost daily basis since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel. It prompted Israel’s invasion of Gaza with the aim of eliminating Hamas.
Hezbollah, a political movement and Iranian-backed militia, says it is attacking Israel in support of the Palestinian people.
On Wednesday Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched more than 50 rockets, hitting a number of private homes in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Hezbollah said the attack was in response to an Israeli strike deep into Lebanon on Tuesday night.
Various countries have urged their citizens in Lebanon to evacuate in recent weeks, as tensions on the border with Israel escalate.
The Ministry of Labour estimates that Kenya has close to four million migrant workers mainly in North America, Europe, the Middle East, the Gulf region, and Australia.
A diaspora remittances survey by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) lists the search for jobs and the pursuit of higher education as the main reasons Kenyans in the diaspora left the country.
According to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), remittance inflows reached $414.3 million (Sh53.5 billion at the current exchange rate) in July, up from $378.1 million (Sh48.8 billion) in July 2023, an increase of 9.6 percent.
In dollar terms, this is the highest inflow Kenya has ever recorded, surpassing the previous high of $412.4 million in January this year.
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