The image on the right shows Muna Giri when she arrived in Lebanon back in 2007. She was 28 at the time. The image on the left shows Muna back in Nepal in 2022, at the age of 43. © @ThisIsLebanonLB / Twitter How a domestic worker from Nepal was enslaved for 15 years in Lebanon Issued on: 04/05/2022 - 18:41Modified: 06/05/2022 - 13:48 Text by:Fatma Ben HamadFollow 5 min The comparison between a photo taken upon a woman’s arrival in Lebanon in 2007 and her departure in 2022 is shocking. They show Muna Giri, a domestic worker from Nepal, before and after spending 15 years enslaved in the home of her Lebanese employers, where she wasn’t paid and suffered both physical and emotional abuse. A Lebanese NGO is sharing her story, calling on the public to mobilise in support of Giri and other foreign domestic workers in Lebanon. After 15 years of imprisonment in her employer’s home, Giri was finally able to return to Nepal on April 25, 2022 – at the age of 43, meeting her grandchildren for the first time.   In early April, Chitra Giri, Muna Giri’s daughter, contacted the organisation This is Lebanon, hoping they might be able to help save her mother from her employer’s grip.  The media in Nepal had just published a story about Muna Giri and her imprisonment.  The NGO agreed to open an investigation into Muna Giri’s situation, which revealed the horrible conditions that she lived in and worked in for 15 years.  Giri was based in Zghorta, a town 90 kilometres to the north of Beirut, where she worked for a powerful Maronite family, several of whom had served as government ministers. Giri, who is illiterate, wasn’t allowed to use a telephone or contact anyone outside of the house. She was beaten and deprived of both sleep and food. When the Nepalese Consulate was alerted to her situation, they asked to meet her employers, who decided they would rather send her back to Nepal.  Even now, she has only received a portion of the money that her former employers owe her. They have sent about $7,000 in total to her family in Nepal (around 6,600 euros). According to This is Lebanon, her Lebanese employers owe her tens of thousands of dollars of unpaid salary.  This is a receipt of the last Western Union transfer sent by Giri’s former boss to her daughter in Nepal, for a total of $700 USD. The date on the order is April 23, 2022, two days before Giri left Lebanon for Nepal. © This is Lebanon There are an estimated 250,000 foreign domestic workers in Lebanon, many of them from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. All of them work under the much-criticised kafala system, under which a worker’s right to be in the country depends on their employer sponsoring them. Under this system, an employer can confiscate a worker’s papers, facilitating both financial and physical abuse of workers.  'Even though I've worked here all this time, I am penniless' Before Giri left Lebanon, This is Lebanon interviewed her by contacting her on her Lebanese employer’s phone.   They recorded the call, during which Giri tells the story of working under a Lebanese couple and being essentially trapped in their home:  My mister has beaten me twice but my madam beats me every single day. She slaps me and pulls my ears. Every day my madam abuses me.  Yes, of course I want to go to Nepal. But how can I ? I've been here 12, 13 years. Even though I've worked here all this time, I am penniless. I have no idea what dollars look like and I haven’t been out since I got here. Giri’s family sent this video to This is Lebanon after she returned to Nepal. In the video, you can see bruises and burn marks on her face and her body. I asked to go but my employer told me there was no money to send me home. My daughter must send the money to them. I have no clothes, no slippers for my feet. They said if I leave, I have to go even without my underpants because they are theirs.  Giri at her employer’s home. © This is Lebanon The woman who employed Giri has filed a defamation complaint against the NGO This is Lebanon, at the Tripoli tribunal on April 28. The FRANCE 24 Observers team contacted Giri’s former employers but didn’t get a response.  This a copy of the defamation complaint filed by Giri’s former boss against This is Lebanon. © This is Lebanon 'Sometimes we get redress, but getting an employer convicted is very rare' Wadih Al Asmar is the president of the Lebanese Centre for Human Rights. Like many other Lebanese activists, he is calling for an end to the kafala system: Often these “sponsoring” families claim that they put part of the worker’ salary away, for their protection. And the people around the family close their eyes to physical abuse.  This pattern plays out over and over again. The worker arrives in Lebanon and they are promised a dr