Authorities in east China's coastal provinces Zhejiang and Jiangsu have launched emergency evacuation of residents to help mitigate the impact of Typhoon Bebinca -- the 13th typhoon of the year.
In Zhejiang's Pinghu City, communities have started the relocation work. The old town area of Xindai, home to about 1,400 permanent residents, including some 30 percent elderly, has been a focus of evacuation efforts.
Over 50 elderly residents have been evacuated to a temporary courtyard shelter, where they have plenty of space for meals and walking around. The shelter is equipped with folding beds, food, drinking water and medical staff standing by to address any health concerns.
The province also raised its emergency response for typhoon prevention to level II.
In Jiangsu Province, Nantong City has conducted comprehensive safety inspections and organized evacuations in key areas.
Nantong's Rugao Port on the Yangtze River was shutdown on Sunday afternoon.
All workers at the Zhangjiagang-Jingjiang-Rugao Bridge construction site -- located at a river shoal -- are evacuated ahead of the storm attack.
"From the temporary ferry to the Rugao-Zhangjiagang ferry, we have evacuated a total of 428 people. So far, all construction personnel of the Zhangjinggao Bridge within the scope of this construction site have been evacuated to our shelter," said Ding Xiaoxing, chief engineer of Rugao Water Affairs Department.
Authorities in Nantong has evacuated more than 1,400 people and over 200 vessels along the coastal area under its jurisdiction.
Making landfall in Shanghai on Monday morning, Typhoon Bebinca is the most powerful tropical cyclone directly hitting the Chinese financial hub in decades.
Zhejiang, Jiangsu evacuate residents as Typhoon Bebinca lands in east China
Zhejiang, Jiangsu evacuate residents as Typhoon Bebinca lands in east China
A group of Lebanese activists have taken the initiative to assist African migrants affected by the ongoing conflict in the country, while leading advocacy efforts to release the workers from a Kafala labor system that allows their employers and agents to withhold their passports, making it impossible for them to leave.
As the conflict in Lebanon rages on, many countries have started airlifting their citizens out of the country, while people from some African countries have been left on the streets of different cities and towns after fleeing their homes. They are desperate for food, shelter and safety.
The Lebanese government said that more than 1.2 million people have been displaced because of the Israeli bombardment of the country.
With minimal resources, the government has prioritized the space it has to shelter its own citizens, leaving tens of thousands of migrants on the streets.
After a journey that saw them scattered on the streets, moving from one city to the other, a group of 80 women from Sierra Leone finally found a roof over their heads.
"I came here to work to take care of my family, my kids, but since this war, I don't have a job. Because of the war, there are no jobs everywhere. I was working in Kounine village. Because of too many bombs, I was too afraid. I came to Beirut to Sabra one month, within two months, they also strike in Sabra," said Mary Koroma, a Sierra Leonean migrant in Lebanon.
Leaving her two children and husband, 28-year-old Koroma came to Lebanon to work and support her family back home. When she had a job, she used to send all the 200 dollars she earned as her monthly salary back to her family in Sierra Leone.
Koroma's colleague in this shelter, Hassanatu Conteh is in a much worse condition. She had a car accident right before the war in Lebanon intensified, limiting her ability to move.
"I don't know yet what will happen in the future. Yes, I feel scared because of the war and my condition, because I cannot work for myself. They are helping me, if I need help, like if I want to go to the toilet, if I want to stand up, they help me. I don't plan to stay, because now I am scared of Lebanon. One, I had an accident, then two, the war," said Conteh.
Unfortunately, most of the African migrants at the shelter have not found anyone to pay for their evacuation. And to make matters worse, none of these women even have their passports.
Under the country's labor system called "Kafala," which is an Arabic word meaning sponsorship, most migrant workers are tied up to their employer and cannot work elsewhere or use their passports to leave Lebanon as the travel documents are held by their bosses.
If they complain about the often deplorable working conditions, they are kicked out and left on the streets without any rights.
"It is called modern day slavery, because, first of all, it gives no rights to migrants. They are treated as second class humans. Often, they are abused at homes, not even paid for the hard work they do, and evidently not provided any basic rights. So, most of them don't get days off, and all of that is acceptable under the Kafala system. Some women tell me the house got bombed. Probably even their employers don't even have their own passports. This crisis is the biggest the country has seen," said Dia Haj Shahin, a Lebanese activist.
Luckily for these women, Shahin and her team are advocating for these women. With the help of the authorities, they are chasing sponsors to retrieve the forcefully confiscated passports.
"We also collected all the information from everyone under our care, to start the repatriation process with immigration and general security. The issue is that none of them hold their passports, and some of them don't even have pictures and have no contact with their employers," said Shahin.
All these women are luckier than many others. The United Nations said on Friday that many Lebanese families who evacuated the country have left their house workers locked inside their residences.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that the number of cases where house workers have been abandoned is spiking, estimating that there are nearly 170,000 migrant workers in Lebanon.
Lebanese activists assist African migrants in escaping "modern day slavery" as conflict intensifies
