Lebanon launches unprecedented investigation into Ghanaian domestic worker's death following outcry

Faustina Tay, a Ghanaian national, was found dead in a car park in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 14, under the building where her employer lived, Al-Jazeera said.

The initial forensic investigation, according to Al Jazeera, specified the cause of death as a "fall from a high place." The doctor who examined the body said there were "no marks of physical assault".

Al Jazeera said that the police had deemed Tay's death as a suicide. 

Prior to her death, Tay had made multiple calls for help in text messages and voice notes sent to her brother in Ghana, according to This is Lebanon –a Canada-based activist group that shares narratives of domestic workers alleging abuse in Lebanon. According to Amnesty International, Lebanon is home to over 250,000 migrant domestic workers – the majority of whom are women who come from African and Asian countries to work as housekeepers in private homes.

Tay was among these women employed under Lebanon's controversial kafala – or sponsorship – system which legally binds the worker's residence in the country to their employer.

Domestic workers can only terminate their contract with the consent of the employer. Otherwise, they become illegal residents and can be jailed or deported.

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Under the Kafala system, the termination of a work contract would also eliminate the legal residence status of the worker, forcing them to leave the country or go into hiding.