‘Kafala slavery’: why Lebanon has a poor reputation among foreign domestic workers
- Government approves new work contract for foreign workers to give them more rights
- Many families paying workers in the devaluated local currency as Lebanon is mired in crisis
Lebanon has approved a new work contract allowing foreign domestic workers to resign and keep hold of their own passport, but activists say the exploitative “kafala” system remains in place.
The economic crisis-hit Mediterranean country is home to around 250,000 migrants, mostly women from Africa and Asia, who toil away in people’s homes as housekeepers, carers or nannies.
They are not protected by the country’s labour law, but instead work under a set of laws, policies and customs called kafala, repeatedly slammed by rights groups as allowing a wide range of abuse.
Under kafala, meaning “sponsorship” in Arabic, the employer sponsors the worker’s legal immigration status in the country, and the latter cannot resign without their consent or they become undocumented. The law also does not ban withholding a worker’s passport.
All this leaves a worker at the employer’s mercy.
Lebanon’s economic and coronavirus crises have increased the urgency for reform over the past year, with many families now paying their workers in the devaluated local currency, and some not at all.