BEIRUT, 28 March 2005 — Thousands of miles from home, living in cramped quarters and earning paltry wages, migrant workers in Lebanon have long endured hardships just to send a little cash home. But a spree of nighttime bombings that have killed three South Asians and wounded several others in the past week finally has some migrant workers thinking about packing their bags.
Those caught in Saturday night’s blaze that engulfed dozens of workshops in an industrial park, empty except for poor guest workers sleeping inside, say they fear for their lives. “I was planning a trip to India to see my father. But now I am afraid. I don’t know if I will come back,” said Dhida Cherukttu, who has been working in Lebanon for 13 years. “I don’t want the money. I just want to be with my family, even if I have to beg in India.”
Three bombings have shaken busy commercial and industrial areas in and around Beirut over the past eight days, but the blasts have gone off after dark, when shops and factories are closed, apparently timed to sow fear without causing casualties.
Migrant workers employed as overnight doormen or guards have borne the brunt instead. Saran Soubaya, an Indian, describes being jolted awake by the deafening explosion that shattered the windows and watching flames licking out of windows in the building across the road.
“The door jammed because of the blast and we could not get out. It was getting really hot. Then the security forces came after 15 minutes and shot the door to open it and get us out,” said Soubaya, who works in a textile factory. “Ten people were sleeping in my building but none died.”
Like the factory owners who employ them, the migrant workers showed up the following morning to inspect the devastation. The area was sealed off as Lebanese security forces picked through rubble and twisted metal that carpeted the narrow alleyways.
