Trafficking of Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon: A Legal Analysis

May 2, 2011 By

In recent years, numerous international news reports have emerged recounting the grim experiences of human trafficking victims in the Middle East and across the globe. These accounts do not always involve trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation; a good number also involve trafficking for purposes of labor exploitation. In several cases, these stories have detailed the criminal charges, prosecutions, and convictions of abusive agents, employers, and even government officials.

Some judges, meanwhile, have noted the particular vulnerability of migrant domestic workers to maltreatment. For example, in December 2009, a Lebanese court ruled in favor of a Filipina woman, Jonalin Malibagu, who sued her employer after she was beaten in broad daylight at the Philippine embassy in Beirut. Similarly, in January 2011 a court in Saudi Arabia sentenced an abusive Saudi employer to three years in jail for violating the country’s anti-trafficking decree when she battered and burned her Indonesian housemaid. Meanwhile, legal analysis and criminal proceedings related to human trafficking for purposes of labor exploitation invariably utilize international legal standards and concepts such as forced labor, servitude, and slavery.

The objective here is to analyze the link between human trafficking and migrant domestic labor in the context of Lebanon. This study seeks to explain how and why migrant domestic workers may be vulnerable to trafficking. Recent studies about migrant domestic labor in Lebanon generally have not considered this link. Rather the bulk of published research on the situation of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon tends to focus on labor exploitation independently. Very few research studies and investigations conducted in Lebanon have scrutinized this topic and drawn conclusions about the relationship between migrant domestic labor and human trafficking per se. As discussed below, trafficking is an important link to explore. Various legal and policy measures may serve to protect migrant domestic workers against exploitation and trafficking, especially since Lebanon has ratified relevant international treaties.

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24/7 Campaign: Speak up for Migrant Rights in Lebanon

April 20, 2011 By

In support of migrant workers, we have decided to relaunch the 24/7 campaign in 2011 in order to celebrate Labor Day in Lebanon by demanding migrant workers’ right to good working conditions, starting with the minimal right for at least one day off a week.

The Lebanese Government approved in 2009 a unified contract for all migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, in addition, several Human Rights agreements, which are signed by Lebanon, and the Lebanese constitution supposedly protect human being in Lebanon from slavery and slavery like conditions. So far this has not prevented employers of migrant domestic workers from treating their employees as slaves.

Perhaps the most significant example would be the fact that these employees work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are given a few hours of sleep, but even then they are on stand-by as employers reserve the right to wake them at any moment of the night for any reason imaginable.

Our aim is to alter the servant stereotype, established between an Asian/African person and a Lebanese person. We want to show a more creative, powerful, proud, self-reliant, and intelligent face to migrant workers, as business women and representative of rich and sophisticated cultures.

For more information on the campaign please contact Simba Russeau at: 24sevencampaign@gmail.com, Janie Shen at: janie.shen@gmail.com or Nisreen Kaj at: nisreen.kaj@gmail.com