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Article

30 Mar 2020

Author:
Timour Azhari, Al Jazeera

Lebanon: Prohibitively high-costs leave undocumented domestic workers untested for Covid-19

"Undocumented in Lebanon: No papers, no coronavirus test," 28 Mar 2020

[Lebanon] hospitals... have either turned away undocumented people or are setting prohibitively high costs for tests, leading them to fear for their health and wellbeing...

[Two Ethiopian, former domestic workers] said they were turned away because they did not have identification documents.

Many live-in migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are left without documents when they escape abusive employers, because of the pervasive practice of employers confiscating passports and IDs.

 an employee at the coronavirus ward of Beirut's St George Hospital, one of the largest in the capital, told Al Jazeera that undocumented people would have to pay for testing themselves, at a cost of 750,000 Lebanese pounds (about $498).