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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