IN PICTURES: Homeless Kenyans Camping Outside Embassy in Lebanon for Weeks

Kenyan migrant workers camp outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022
Kenyan migrant workers camp outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022.
Matt Kynaston

A freelance Lebanese Photographer, Matt Kynaston, captured heartbreaking images of 20 Kenyan women who have camped outside the Kenyan Consulate in Beirut for three weeks.

According to reports, the women have been demanding to be flown back to Kenya after leaving their domestic work employment in the Lebanese Capital.

According to the photographer, the women were sleeping on the streets with their heaps of clothes, cookware and mattresses.

They claimed that they had been mistreated by their employers since touching down in the Middle Eastern country in search of greener pastures.

Kenyan migrant workers sleep outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022
Kenyan migrant workers sleep outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022.
Matt Kynaston

For days, the women have been protesting demanding to be allowed to return to Kenya with such slogans as 'home, we want home.'

The photos captured the women with their bags sleeping on pavements while others were in the middle of the street.

“We want to go back home, but our consulate is the problem. Instead of helping us, [the consul] is nowhere to be found. There’s no help from him.

“He told me to go away, to go home. We can’t. I was chased out by my agency. Others were chased out by their bosses, others ran away because of the torture they were getting from their bosses,” one of the domestic workers told Will Christou, a journalist for The New Arab.

The protests began with six women three weeks ago but has expanded to include more than 20 with the figure still shooting up.

Both the Kenyan Consulate in Beirut and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kenya have remained mum over the group's suffering.

The protests come at the worst possible time, since the Middle Eastern country is going through the cycle of freezing weather in Winter.

Kenyan domestic workers have, in the recent years, reported abuse in the Gulf and Middle Eastern countries compelling the state to get in touch with foreign governments in an attempt to address the issue.

So dire is the mistreatment that some workers end up dead while in foreign land.

Below are more photographs:

Kenyan migrant workers sleep outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022
Kenyan migrant workers sleep outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022.
Matt Kynaston
Kenyan migrant workers sleep outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022
Kenyan migrant workers camp outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022
Matt Kynaston
Kenyan migrant workers camp outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022
Kenyan migrant workers camp outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022.
Matt Kynaston
Kenyan migrant workers camp outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022
Kenyan migrant workers camp outside Kenyan consulate in Badaro, Beirut on January 11, 2022.
Matt Kynaston
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