Matennah Sawanah, a 33-year-old from Sierra Leone, was earning about $300 a month working at a hotel in Sidon, a city on Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast. Now, with the hotel shuttered amid Israel’s bombing campaign, she is unemployed and sharing a cramped apartment with 24 other women, struggling to afford rent.
Matennah Sawanah. Courtesy of Matennah Sawanah
Migrant workers like Sawanah have been caught in the crossfire as Israel carries out strikes against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group based in southern Lebanon. The conflict has upended daily life in the country, where more than 1,000 people have been killed and over 1 million displaced in recent weeks.
“There is no job for us. It’s really hard,” Sawanah told NBC News. “We don’t have money to pay rent.”
Across the Arab world, there are more than 24 million migrant workers, including many in Lebanon, according to the International Labor Organization. The widening war in the Middle East has severely disrupted their livelihoods, with some migrant workers also reported killed or injured in airstrikes.
Many are living with the fear that “a bomb could come at any time,” said Mustafa Qadri, founder and CEO of the labor rights group Equidem. He added that some migrant workers are unsure how to access bomb shelters.
Sawanah, who moved to Lebanon in 2020, has been helping other migrant workers as they try to regain stability. Despite the uncertainty, she remains determined to return to work once conditions improve.
“If they open, I will go to find money,” she said. “I cannot sit like this.”
Officials say assistance efforts are being extended to all those displaced by the violence.
“We are treating all displaced people the same. A displaced [person] is a displaced [person], regardless of his identity — whether a Lebanese, a refugee or a migrant,” said Mortada Mhanna, head of the disaster unit in Tyre, Lebanon’s fourth-largest coastal city.
“Whomever comes to us, we try to find a shelter and provide them with all their needs.”
