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July
22/2006 ETHIOPIANS
IN LEBANON EXPOSED TO DANGER BY REGIME More
than 50,000 Ethiopians sold to modern slavery to Lebanon by the regime of
Meles Zenawi are exposed to grave and life threatening danger as the
situation in Lebabon worsens. Characteristically, the Meles regime is
lying and claiming that it has organized the evacuation of the Ethiopians
from Lebanon. However, not only is this claim absolutely false but the
regime has shamelessly decreed that any returnee from Lebanon who comes
with goods will not be exempted from duty taxes! More
than 50,000 Ethiopians had been sent to Lebanon to work as maids, guards,
chauffeurs,etc in an arrnagement mostly organized by the ruling party's
loyalists and amounting to modern slavery that had been denounced often by
many human rights organizations including SOCEPP. The Ethiopians in
Lebanon had to work under dire and racist conditions. Many do not even
hold their passports/confiscated by their employers/ and cannot flee and
enter Syria or Cyprus. They are stranded, abandoned, exposed to the
Israeli bombs. The Meles regime that rushed to send troops to Somalia has not
been keen on helping the stranded and endangered Ethiopians other than
decreeing that if they make it back home they will be taxed. SOCEPP
has denounced the Meles regime for the modern slavery and sale of
youngsers it had been engaged in. This time, the Ethiopians in Lebanon are
exposed to death with no one conerned fro their fate. A few have been
taken by their employers. The majority have been abandoned. Some dozen
have already have been wounded. There is no report on the number of deaths
while all indications are that there may well be casualties. The
irresponsible regime is spreading lies and claiming many have been
evacuated but this a shameless lie. It is to the credit of Nigeria that its envoy has tried to help the
Ethiopians and other Africans. The regime of Meles Zenawi is exposed by
its indifference and inaction. SOCEPP
calls on all to focus on the plight of Ethiopian workers trapped in
Lebanon and to call for their evacuation without delay. The Meles regime
has no concern for citizens at all. Ethiopians in the Diaspora must all
mobilize to bring to the attention of the world th plight of the
Ethiopians in Lebanon. SOCEPP |