Slavery in 2020

Host Terrell J Starr talks to Banchi Yimer about the kafala system in this episode of Black Diplomats. Yimer traveled from her native Ethiopia to Yemen in search of work, and took a job as a domestic servant in Lebanon. She was promised a fair wage and the right to make decisions about her life, but soon found herself trapped inside the house with no money or even her passport.

When she was able to escape she realized she was in the middle of a growing crisis of women in similar situations. Thousands of domestic servants were dumped on the street with nothing when the Lebanese economy crashed in 2019. Many of them are still there, waiting for the world to hear their stories.

Banchi Yimer

Founder of Egna Legna Besides

Find more information about Banchi on her Twitter feed, or learn about Egna Legna Besides, the organization she founded to help protect women like her.

Donate to their GoFundMe to help migrant domestic workers in the Middle East.

To read more about the kafala system and it's impact you can go here, here, or here. This article about the death rate involving alleged suicides among domestic workers is heart breaking.