Reunion Wire

Laborers from Kenya say they have endured abuse in the Middle East, often at the hands of their employers. But an aid agency is offering them a chance to rebuild their lives in Kenya. Hundreds of survivors of forced labor are now able to access support offered by a group that offers a soft landing for those in need.

Faith Murunga’s store on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital is open for business. It has been barely six months old in operation, helping her put food on her family’s table.

It isn’t what she had anticipated when she left Kenya in 2019 for work in Saudi Arabia, a popular work destination for those unable to find jobs in Kenya. She says what she was promised as she emigrated and what she found there were worlds apart.

She says, the boss came and told me that as long as I agreed to travel to their country, I must do each and every chore. He said, I would not have the right to complain. They had paid a lot of money to buy me. I was therefore their property,” Murunga said.

During her two years of service in Saudi Arabia, Murunga suffered both emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her employer, until a good Samaritan came to her aid and facilitated her return to Kenya.

Back home, she received help from Haart Kenya, an organization that fights human trafficking and helps people like Faith.

Since Haart Kenya was formed in 2010, the organization has helped more than 700 survivors of forced labor who have come home scarred.

Mercy Atieno, the organization’s outreach manager, says the survivors, 80% of them women, have varying degrees of trauma when they seek help.

“When a survivor comes to us, they are distressed. Some of them appear abused. They don’t know what to do next and you find someone who does not know where to start, they do not have a house, they don’t want to go back home because everyone knows they went abroad, so they are expecting they will come with something,” Atieno said.

The organization takes in survivors of forced labor and other work-related abuses and helps them rebuild their lives through counseling, training, and supporting their ability to make a living. Mercy Atieno explains.

“This process is a very participatory process, where together with the case worker and the survivor, charting ways through which they are going to work together for proper rehabilitation, so the survivor has a voice and they actually say no to a service, because our services are individualized, and they are survivor-centered,” Atieno said.

The Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers, or KUDHEIHA, the union that fights for the rights of workers, says the migration of workers to the Middle East is likely to continue as long as Kenya’s 10% unemployment rate stays as high as it is.

Albert Njeru, the union’s general secretary, advises those seeking work as unskilled labor abroad to be extra vigilant.

“Seek for proper information, consult widely, and before you go get it right, don’t go where you can see black spots,” Njeru said.

Haart Kenya’s leadership says it is ready to handle cases like Faith’s as they appear. For now, Faith says she is grateful for another chance at life, away from the abuse she suffered in a foreign land.

Source: Voice of America

Ethiopian forces have carried out another airstrike on the capital city of the northern Tigray region Wednesday, two days after an airstrike killed three children there.

United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Tuesday that one other person was killed in the airstrike on the outskirts of Mekelle. Haq said nine people were reportedly injured in a second airstrike in Mekelle later that day that also damaged a number of houses and a nearby hotel.

The spokesman said the U.N.’s colleagues “are alarmed at the intensification of the conflict and once again remind all parties to the conflict of their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.”

The Ethiopian government initially denied launching Monday’s attacks, but the state-run Ethiopian Press Agency later acknowledged the airstrikes and said they targeted communications infrastructure.

“Action [was taken] against media and equipment used by the TPLF [Tigray People’s Liberation Front] terrorists in Mekelle,” the press statement said. The TPLF is a former member of the coalition that ruled Ethiopia for more than 30 years. In May, Ethiopia designated the group a terrorist organization.

Getachew Reda, a TPLF spokesperson, accused Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, of being unwilling to end the conflict. “He has never been for peace, only the appropriate use of sticks can prod him into considering such a path. The #AirStrikeonCivilians in #Mekelle is proof positive that he will do everything to terrorize our people, especially when his forces are losing on the battlefield,” he said in a Twitter post Tuesday. “If people had illusions he could keep his promise to resolve the conflict peacefully, yesterday’s attack should make it clear that only sticks are effective.”

The Ethiopian federal government has been engaged in an armed conflict with fighters from the northern Tigray region for nearly a year.

Mekelle has not seen large-scale fighting since June, when Ethiopian forces withdrew from the area and Tigray forces retook control of most of the region. Following that, the conflict continued to spill into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Last week, Tigray forces said the Ethiopian military had launched a ground offensive to push them out of Amhara.

Source: Voice of America

The U.N. refugee agency reports weeks of unrelenting rain and heavy flooding in South Sudan have washed away whole communities and wiped out the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people.

Floods are not new to South Sudan. What is new is the frequency and intensity of the flooding. UNHCR representative in South Sudan, Arafat Jamal, describes the current flooding, which has affected more than 700,000 people, as being of near biblical proportions.

“People have lived with flooding for millennia, but they have been able to cope. They have been able to move to higher ground when the floods are there, and then come down when they recede. But when you have a high-level flooding year after year, that destroys the crops and does not allow you to replant. That is when you have got an erosion (in) peoples’ ability to survive,” Jamal expressed.

He points out the present floods have hit at a time when people in South Sudan are facing the triple threat of conflict, COVID-19, and hunger. He says the devastating flooding is expected to continue as the climate crisis intensifies.

He notes Jonglei, Unity, Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile are the worst affected states. “I have seen people stranded on islands. I have heard from people who have had to survive by eating grass and roots. And we have also heard of people who have had to walk for 10 days to access dry land. It is also hugely destructive in terms of assets. This is an agricultural country and a country that depends upon its herds of cattle,” Jamal says.

Cattle have also been affected. They are stranded and drowning, mired in the mud and unable to survive. And whole fields of sorghum, mangoes, and millet are destroyed by flooding, he says.

He says the UNHCR together with South Sudan’s government are delivering urgently needed aid to the most vulnerable. That aid includes hygiene items, food, emergency shelter and solar lanterns to provide light.

However, he adds much more assistance is needed and is appealing to the international community to help rebuild the affected communities and restore people’s lives and livelihoods.

Source: Voice of America