Middle East Images’ photographer Aline Deschamps’s photo featured in Women and nonbinary photographers capture 2022, by CNN.
From Aline Deschamps, a photographer based in Beirut, Lebanon: “Lucy Turay, a former migrant domestic worker and mother of two, pays a visit to her auntie who takes care of her daughter, Ugyatu. Lucy was trafficked to work in Lebanon and enslaved under the kafala system for two years. After being repatriated to her home country, Sierra Leone, her 3-year-old daughter does not recognize her anymore. Ugyatu was too young to remember her mother before her departure to Lebanon. Since then, she has been living with Lucy’s auntie, whom she now considers her mother.
“Human trafficking and the abuse of migrant domestic workers is one of our biggest contemporary tragedies. Not only in the Middle East, but everywhere. This is one of the many family stories that happen to migrant domestic workers stranded in the Middle East, who sacrifice their lives for their children and let them grow up in their absence. What touches me deeply is that when I asked Lucy how she felt about it, she replied: ‘I am so grateful that my auntie takes care of my daughter as her own. And one day, when Ugyatu will be older, I will tell her my story.’ ” Aline Deschamps
