“Where Is Your Humanity?” African Families Demand Humanitarian Evacuation

On Sunday, close to a hundred people from Sudan, Ethiopia, and Cameroon gathered outside the downtown Beirut headquarters of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), chanting “where is your humanity?” and demanding the UN evacuate them from Lebanon to a safe third country as asylum seekers.

“We want to save our children and our families from the Israeli bombs and from the war in Lebanon,” said Abdelbaqi Othman Abdelbaqi, of the Khartoum International Centre for Human Rights, who was one of the organizers of the protest.

Many of Lebanon’s roughly 176,000 migrant workers have largely been left to fend for themselves, as virtually all formal shelters for displaced people refuse to allow them in. Many who want to leave lack the means to do so, or can’t return to their home countries that are also at war. With few options remaining, the protesters on Sunday turned to the United Nations to demand recognition as asylum seekers and evacuation to safe third countries.

“I’m from Tigray, and my country has been at war for four years,” said Enat Dawit, 41, a mother of three from the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia. “I cannot return to my country.”

Four years ago, militias, troops from Ethiopia’s central government, and armed forces from the neighboring country of Eritrea invaded Tigray, imposing a siege and a brutal military campaign that forced over two million people to flee. But today Dawit is looking to leave Lebanon. “My children cannot bear this war,” she said. “I want to leave this country.” 

One Sudanese protester, Adila, said she also cannot return home because of the ongoing civil war there, which started in April 2023, killing tens of thousands and displacing millions over the past year and a half. "There's war in our country and there's war here. We want to be evacuated, we need to be evacuated from this country. Immediately,” she said.

Ibrahim Mahmoud, one of the demonstrators, carried a homemade sign warning that refugee children are at risk of death. “I demand an immediate evacuation,” he said. 

Sanit Woldemariam Babo, a single mother from Ethiopia, said she was sleeping outside the UN’s ESCWA building with her two children until recently. "I would’ve managed had I been alone, but my children are sleeping on the street. They need to go to school. Sometimes they don’t eat."

Sanit and her children recently found shelter in a local church. But she still hasn’t been able to enroll them in school. 

“I want to look after my children’s future,” she said. “They’re not studying, and no one is helping me.” 

Some, like Enat, feel that the UN isn’t doing enough for them. “This United Nations, who do they stand with?” said Enat. “It must stand with us, our children. I've been sleeping on the ground outside of the UN for a month now, with the ants, in the sun, the rain on me and my children. Is that not wrong? Am I not a human being?”

Dalal Harb, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency in Lebanon, told The Public Source, “UNHCR is aware of the challenges faced by individuals in Lebanon and works to ensure that those in need of international protection receive the necessary support, in accordance with our mandate,” without responding to follow-up questions on the possibility of these protesters being recognized as refugees.

“We have died,” said Ibrahim. “We are living to die. Life and death are the same, there’s no difference. We demand evacuation, evacuation, evacuation.”