We’ll bring the girls back!

-Pres. Sirleaf vows

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has disclosed here that there are more Liberian girls in Lebanon under deviant circumstances than her government has previously thought.

In a chat with media managers, publishers, editors and foreign correspondents on Monday, 13April in the C. Cecil Dennis Auditorium of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Monrovia, President Sirleaf said government is currently gathering all of facts surrounding the girls going to Lebanon where they were allegedly exploited sexually.

Liberia’s Minister of Labour Neto Zarzar Lighe, who went to Labenon recently, has brought home 10 of the girls. 

“The 10 girls are safe and placed under witness protection”, President Sirleaf told the local media in Monrovia.

The “Sixty-four Million Dollar” question here is who trafficked the Liberian girls to Lebanon, and how did they leave the country without the authorities taking notice.

On Monday, the World Lebanese Culture Union hosted a news conference in Monrovia, condemning the situation of the grils and distancing itself from the act.

Now the Liberian leader has said there are more Liberian girls in Lebanon faced with various exploitations than previously thought.

One report says the number could be about 100 or more, but as President Sirleaf noted, some of them are refusing to come home and going into hiding.

More Liberian males and females are employed by Lebanese merchants in Liberia to do domestic chores. Some analysts say the girls may have been promised greener pasture and lured into being trafficked to Lebanon, but by who remains the task of the Liberian government.  

By Jonathan Browne