The chaos in Lebanon has left a large number of South Asians stranded or endangered. Today four Indian Navy ships entered Beirut harbor to begin evacuating nationals to Cyprus:
Over 1,000 Indians assembled at the jetty as Israeli operations against Hezbollah militia intensified in Lebanon.
The warships — INS Mumbai, INS Betwa, INS Brahmaputra and auxiliary tanker INS Shakti — anchored overnight off the Lebanese coast, moved into the port to pull out the anxious Indian nationals and shift them to camps in Larnaca in Cyprus, Navy sources said.
There are about 12,000 Indians in Lebanon, according to press reports. And while India has the capability to mount its own evacuation, other countries with large numbers of nationals in Lebanon are in a more difficult position. The International Organization of Migration (IOM) has a team in Lebanon on behalf of the governments of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Moldova and Ghana. There are at least 10,000 Bangladeshis in Lebanon, and up to 40,000 Filipinos.
But the case that stands out is Sri Lanka, with an estimated 93,000 nationals in Lebanon of whom 86,000 are women employed as domestic labor. According to a recent article in Middle East Report, Sri Lankan domestic workers have become ubiquitous in Lebanon. You wonÂ’t be surprised to learn that the employment process is shady and the workers often mistreated:
Each year, over 10,000 female Sri Lankans arrive in Lebanon with the intention of working hard to make better lives for themselves and their families. Most of them go to work cleaning, cooking and caring for children—jobs that Lebanese are generally not willing to take though the services are in high demand. Along with Filipinas, Bangladeshis and other Asian and African women, Sri Lankans have become an integral part of the Lebanese home and the Lebanese economy in the post-war era. In most cases, these women earn more than they could in their home country, but it is estimated by the Migrant Services Center, one of the largest NGOs in Sri Lanka serving domestic migrants, that 40 percent of them return to Sri Lanka no better off than they were when they left. Some are struggling to repay large loans taken out for migration expenses and the families of others mismanaged their remittances, but many simply had their wages withheld. It is estimated that 20 percent of the 80,000 Sri Lankan migrant workers living in Lebanon experience some form of maltreatment, ranging from non-payment of wages to verbal, physical and sexual abuse.
Â… According to David Soysa of the Migrant Services Center, hiring agencies direct the least skilled and least educated women to Lebanon, because that destination is perceived to have the highest rates of worker abuse. SFBLE statistics do show slightly higher rates of reported maltreatment in Lebanon than elsewhere.
So far, the Sri Lankan government has been trying to move its nationals from the most endangered areas to other parts of Lebanon:
The embassy was hiring buses to transport those who needed help. The embassy was trying to evacuate about 1500 endangered Sri Lankans from an area called Hyda which was directly on the onslaught of the bombing. There were many problems the embassy was facing to move these people out. Not many drivers were willing to take their vehicles on hire to this area. The other problem was roads and bridges have been destroyed by the Israeli bombing in the area.
A Sinhalese nun called Sister Leela who has been caring for Sri Lankan evacuees interviewed by the BBCÂ’s Sandeshaya said yesterday the Sri Lankan Embassy informed her that another bus load of 100 will be arriving at her center for safety.
In the meantime, it appears that the casualties have begun:
Sri Lankan woman housemaid in Lebanon is feared dead due to the Israeli aerial bombing in Lebanon, Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said.
Ministry spokeswoman Himali Arunathilake said that “We have received information that a female worker is among the dead in northern Lebanon and we are now trying to verify those reports.”
Given the number of people involved, the conditions on the ground, the fact that many workers don’t have papers, and the expected resistance of employers to allow their domestics to leave, it’s likely that more than a few young Sri Lankan women will become “collateral damage” of the Israel-Hezbollah war.
how do the talking points and the historical citations help in resolving the situation in Lebanon today?
Israel has said their operations would end if the kidnapped soldiers are returned.
I wouldn’t use sources unless I trusted that they were direct, not misleading. Thanks for looking up those quotes.
Here’s an interesting discussion – I should certainly hope people find it to be a “balanced” perspective – on what motivated Nasser’s move to buildup troops along the border. Essentially it claims that, while Israel was clearly perceived as an affront to the Arab world (in the context of pan-Arabism, particularly salient), this move was essentially “saber-rattling”, possibly to provoke a pre-emptive strike from Israel. The fundamental motivation seems political and ideological.
If you view this from a colonial/postcolonial perspective, this ideology and politics makes a lot of sense. This is the fundamental disagreement, however. If you believe that European Jews had a rightful claim to Palestine – or the opposite, as I do, that Zionism was essentially an ideology of manifest destiny and colonization – then this is eventually the grounds on which all argument and debate fails.
The elements that have occurred afterwards – Balfour, communal violence, “terrorism” (a term which evokes far too much reactionary emotion, given that attacks on civilians has been a tragic element of warfare for eons), Palestinian and Israeli attacks on military (regular or irregular or “informal”) and non-military/civilian targets, the Six-Day and Yom Kippur/Ramadan Wars, etc – are all colored in one light or another. The question of who is the hunter and who is the lion is, I think, the most important one here.
Excellent work, Manju.
More than often on internet, the context is removed or sometimes quotes are misqouted (dates removed in your example), I have noticed.
To the persons knowledgeable about the history and culture of this region, I pose a question-
I’m curious how these warring entities treat each other’s prisoners of war? Somehow I feel, even though Israel and some of its neighbors have been at each others throats for quite some time, their conflicts are likened almost to cousins fighting. That is, they fight sometimes, most of the time, and the rest of the time they’re forced to “try and make it work” against their will. But they have so much in common, in terms of similar language, similar religion (Abrahamic traditions), similiar food, etc.. Can we expect Abu Ghraib like behavior if Israel were to capture Lebanese soldiers as POWs, or vice versa?
Will we see a picture of an IDF soldier pointing to a naked Hezbollah’s private parts?
There have been various allegations by groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch with respect to Israeli use of torture.
The PLO-run Palestinian Authority had also been accused of torture by the same groups, such as HRW. The PA was long been regarded by Palestinians as corrupt and problematic, but also supported in the face of the larger issue of the Israeli state.
I cannot find any reports of Hamas or Hezbollah torturing prisoners, certainly not on a systemic basis. In fact, the former’s members were often tortured by the PA! If anyone can find otherwise, please do put the information up.
Thanks for resolving that issue Manju.
Israel use torture ? yes it has. Mossad has tortured many terrorist elements. How do you think they come up with such excellent intelligence. When RAW captured a foreign militant a couple of years back and was interrogating him, he held his own until he was informed that he was being handed over to Mossad at their request. Apparently he was so scared that he confessed. I cannot back this account with any reference because it came from a personal source , but Mossad has used torture before, it is reserved for those who they know have information about incoming attacks on civilians.
Earlier, I stated: Israel is still occupying Sheebaa farms and has also detained over a THOUSAND Hizbullah members in Israeli jails for years now with no recourse or chance of getting out.
MeA CuLpA: I was wrong about Israel currently holding over a thousand Hizbullah members in Israeli jails. Israel has in fact released (or done prisoner swap) for most of the Hizbullah members. I think less than 20 Hizbullah members are left in Israeli jails. Israel however is still holding around 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails (including women and children in thousands) Apologies!
From your events page:
Alwan for the Arts Benefit Concert for Lebanon & Palestine tamasha posted on July 25, 2006, 10:31 pm EDT A concert of Lebanese resistance music featuring songs by Fairouz & Marcel Khalifeh. Donations: $20 / $30 / $40. All proceeds will go to humanitarian relief organizations.
When: Sat, July 29, 2006, 8:00pm Where: Alwan For the Arts, 16 Beaver St, 4th Floor, New York
A good cause, but isn’t it non-desi? It’s been there for sometime now. More at home on this thread probably!