JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Ethiopians and Kenyans are among those who have been evacuated from Lebanon amid an escalation of Israeli air strikes in clashes with the militant group Hezbollah. Thousands more Africans are still stranded in Lebanon, alongside other migrant workers from different nations. Some have been abandoned by their employers and have no means to go home. Emmanuel Igunza reports from Nairobi.
EMMANUEL IGUNZA, BYLINE: At Ethiopia's main airport in Addis Ababa, its joy and celebration as a charter plane carrying Ethiopians evacuated from Lebanon arrives. On board, the first group of 51 young women happily hug, kiss and thank government officials who are here waiting to receive them home.
ZINASH GITELE: (Through interpreter) I never thought I would ever return home.
IGUNZA: Among them is 22-year-old Zinash Gitele, who is overjoyed to be back after weeks of uncertainty.
GITELE: (Through interpreter) It was scary. It was difficult getting to the airport there in Lebanon and then coming home to Addis Ababa. But it's all God's grace.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
IGUNZA: This video of a distressed Kenyan woman and her friends has been trending for days in Kenya. In it, she can be heard crying to her sister. "Houses nearby are flattened," she cries. "I can see fire everywhere around me," she says amid the sounds of heavy explosions.
EULITA JEROP: Everything is traumatizing currently. It's shocking. Everyone is worried.
IGUNZA: Thirty-five-year-old Eulita Jerop from Kenya is among nearly 200,000 migrant workers in Lebanon. The majority of them are from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and most of them women.
JEROP: We are living in fear. We have nothing to do. We just sit down and watch the news. We have seen fire, bombing sounds, and a lot of things that has happened, which is the first time in my life to experience something like this.
IGUNZA: Many work under the controversial kafala system sponsored by employers to work in the host country, which often means they are at their mercy - low wages, missing legal documents, including passports.
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IGUNZA: As the fighting intensifies in southern Lebanon and Beirut, thousands of migrant workers have been abandoned by the employers who have fled for safety themselves. The international airport in Beirut remains open for now, but air tickets cost thousands of dollars. And so, many stranded workers and their families either end up abandoned or on the streets. If they're lucky, they get access to a shelter like this one in Beirut, if - as many migrant workers have claimed - they are not turned away first. For now, many like Jerop are stranded in a war zone.
JEROP: We just pray and hope things will go well so that we go back to our countries safely. Our cry is to go back home safely.
IGUNZA: Her employers want her to stay. Her government is ineffectual, and every day of escalating fighting is a reminder of the need to get out of Lebanon by any means possible. For NPR News, I'm Emmanuel Igunza, in Nairobi, Kenya. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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