By Mohamed Kamara

A spokesman for the 483 Sierra Leoneans who are stranded in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon and in other parts of the country says they want to come home.

Madam Kadiatu Kanu has called on President Julius Maada Bio to emulate the example his Ethiopian counterpart who had sent an airline to evacuate some five hundred Ethiopians from Lebanon, a battlefield now by Israeli soldiers.

She said, “Our nationals are completely uncared for as they roam the streets and restaurants begging for food, while spending sleepless nights in abandoned structures.”

Madam Kanu said the death of Sierra Leone’s consulate in Lebanon Mr. Hashim Hashim has worsened the already paralyzed situation. She said the late consulate has on several occasions sent appeals to the International Office of Migration (IOM) to bring them back home but nothing was done to translate such into action.

She said even the few Sierra Leoneans who are employed in Lebanon as domestic aides are being sexually abused and are most times not paid on time.

In a related development, 700 Sierra Leoneans are reported to be stranded in Agadez, Northern Niger, while they were on their way to Algeria.

Over 150 are being imprisoned in Ankara Turkey main’s prison.

Over hundred are detained in Morocco’s deportation camp.

Over 300 are stranded in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and on Kuwait a high number of unidentified migrants are being trapped there. Germany and the USA, through the help of IOM, deporting Sierra Leoneans.

But Mali, Mauritania and other countries in West Africa, are having high number of Sierra Leonean migrants who are currently finding it extremely difficult to cope while trying to journey further to European countries Italy, Germany.

Tunisia and Algeria are also hosting many Sierra Leoneans who are languishing in horrors to fend off a living.