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Monday, January 24, 7:30 p.m. GMT:
There are 250,000 domestic workers in Lebanon, about 99 percent of whom are work-licensed immigrants. Most of them are women from Ethiopia, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and they earn low wages.
They work under the Kafala – or patronage – system, which has been equated with modern slavery. The system is a restrictive law and regulation that links the legal residence of migrant workers with employers. Those who leave their employer without permission are at risk of losing their legal residence and are subject to arrest or deportation. The UN and other human rights groups have repeatedly called for its abolition.
There have been efforts to reform, however. Lebanese ministry of labor In 2020, it approved a new standard contract for domestic workers that guaranteed overtime pay, sick pay, annual leave, and a state minimum wage. It also allowed employees to leave their jobs without the permission of the employer. But to the chagrin of rights groups, it never materialized.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) report in January he said that one of the main reasons for the abolition of the system was a lucrative business for some. “A study found that the kafala system generates more than $ 100 million a year. Hiring agencies … forced labor and human trafficking generate $ 57.5 million a year in revenue, ”HRW said.
Last week a viral video A Lebanese man who abused a domestic worker sparked a conversation about the rights of Lebanese workers, the kafala system, and the Lebanese influence. unprecedented economic downturn.
In this section we will review the situation of domestic workers in Lebanon as the country’s crises escalate.
In this section of The Stream, we’ve put together the following:
Aya Majzoub, @Aya_Majzoub
Lebanese researcher Human Rights Watch
Aline Deschamps
Photographer
Roula Seghaier, @IDWFED
Strategic Program Coordinator, International Federation of Domestic Workers (IDWF)
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