An Ethiopian domestic
worker, who was caught on tape being beaten by a man outside her country’s
general consulate, has committed suicide at a psychiatric hospital.
The National News Agency
said Wednesday that a consulate representative was at a police station in
Beirut checking on how to file a lawsuit against the owner of the woman’s
employment agency, when Antelias police said Alem Dechasa, 33, hanged herself
using her bed sheets.
The prosecution will
follow-up the case on Thursday.
Last week, the
government condemned the abuse of the mother of two and called for an
investigation to refer the culprits to justice.
The condemnation came
after LBC TV obtained mobile phone footage of a man hitting the woman and
pulling her hair under the gaze of bystanders outside the Ethiopian general
consulate in Beirut.
Najla Shahda, from the
nonprofit organization Caritas, told As Safir daily on Thursday, that the
psychological problems Dechasa was suffering from did not justify her abuse.
She was admitted to De
la Croix psychiatric hospital, known as Deir al-Salib, on Feb. 25, Shahda said.
Dechasa had reportedly
worked at three homes but the employers had returned her to the employment
agency.
As Safir said the man in
the footage was the brother of the owner of the employment agency. He claimed
he was forcing her into the car after she jumped out of the window.
Many of the estimated
200,000 foreign domestic workers in Lebanon hail from the Philippines, Sri
Lanka, Nepal and Ethiopia.
Although the Lebanese
government issued a decree in 2009 that requires employers to abide by a set of
rules including paying workers their salary in full at the end of each month
and giving them one day off a week, advocacy groups say few employers respect
these conditions.
In rare cases in the
past few years, an employer was sentenced to 15 days in jail for repeatedly
beating a Filipina worker and another sentenced to one month for abusing a Sri
Lankan maid and confining her to the house.
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