Daily Star - Domestic Worker Left Dead On Street

By Dalila Mahdawi
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: A 28-year-old Filipina plunged seven floors to her death on Monday, lying on the pavement for hours before paramedics transferred her body to a morgue. According to several eyewitnesses, it took paramedics more than one hour to reach the Khalifeh Building in Beirut’s Sanayeh neighborhood, where the twisted body of Theresa Otero Seda lay covered on the pavement with a white plastic sheet.
As police cordoned off the area, blood could be seen trickling down the pavement, with Seda’s right hand poking out from under the sheeting.
According to Sanayeh resident Matthew Cassel, Seda had apparently cut her wrists on the balcony before plummeting to the ground, saying he’d seen other migrant workers clean up the blood. “I was here for at least 45 minutes to an hour before an ambulance turned up,” he said. “If there had been any chance she was alive, who would have known?”
He added that after Seda’s body was covered, cars continued to speed along the road, at times coming close to running over her corpse.
“Judging by the position of the body, it appeared she jumped,” a passerby told The Daily Star as paramedics uncovered Seda in full view of the public. Though her face, shattered by the impact, was unrecognizable, one of four officials from the Philippines Embassy identified her. The officials declined to comment “because the Lebanese police are investigating,” but held a copy of her passport.
Standing watch was Seda’s employer, who said he had received a call from the gatekeeper at around 1 pm informing him of her death. She had arrived only two months ago, he said, asking that his name not be revealed.
“We’ll issue a police report and forensic report, and the insurance and embassy will take care of shipping her back,” he said.
There are over 200,000 migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, mostly women working as live-in housekeepers or nannies. Despite their numbers, they are not protected under Lebanese labor law, which views them more as servants than employees.
While many women are treated respectfully by their employers, others have been subject to serious rights abuses, including having their pay withheld, not being allowed out of the home or time off, and sexual, physical or psychological abuse.
Seda’s death comes amid a spate of suicides and other deaths in Lebanon’s migrant worker community. Up to 30 women are thought to have died in recent weeks.
A study conducted by Human Rights Watch in 2008 found that more than one migrant domestic worker was dying in Lebanon each week – mostly from suspected suicide or by falling off a balcony while trying to escape abusive employers.
Although Seda’s death appears to be a clear case of suicide, rights campaigners have said police investigations are often inadequate, usually taking into consideration only the employer’s testimony and failing to cross-check it with neighbors or the worker’s friends or family.