A Kenyan domestic worker who was threatened with deportation from Lebanon after a video of her being beaten in the street went viral has been granted a temporary reprieve.
The video, which showed the woman and a friend being pulled by the hair and repeatedly struck by a crowd of people in a busy Beirut street, caused outrage when it was shared on social media.
The two women – named only as Rosa and Shamila – were arrested following the incident on 17 June, along with three of their attackers. An off-duty Lebanese soldier was among those detained.
In response to the attack, the Kenyan government demanded an apology from Lebanese authorities and called for the accused “to meet the full force of the law”.
Salim Jreissati, Lebanon’s justice minister, branded the incident “shocking” and “abhorrently racist”.
Shamila was issued with a deportation order on Monday, according to her lawyer, leading to fears she would be kicked out of the country before her case could be resolved.
But on Friday, apparently in response at the outcry over the case, a spokesman for Lebanon’s directorate of general security said a decision on whether Shamila could stay in the country would be postponed until after the assault case is concluded.
“She will stay with us until the case is finished, and then we will see what will be done,” the spokesman said.
He denied earlier reports that a deportation order had been issued, a statement contradicted by Shamila’s lawyer, Nermine Sibai, who said she had received an official case number. The order was also reported on Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
The Anti Racism Movement, a Lebanese organisation that campaigns for migrant rights, said: “There is still a chance another deportation order could be issued, so we urge general security to halt the deportation and allow Shamila to resolve her legal status, and hold the perpetrators of this assault accountable.”
The case has drawn fresh criticism of the treatment of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, where suicides and unnatural deaths among maids – an estimated 200,000 of whom are registered to work in the country – are common. Most come from Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Kenya, to work in the homes of Lebanese families.
Rights groups blame the high levels of abuse on the kafala system of sponsorship, through which migrant workers are employed. The system ties their legal status in the country to their employer.