Domestic Workers

Domestic workers

Before civil war in Lebanon, it was normal to meet an Arab woman who is a domestic worker whereas she was “Kurdiyeh”, “Baalbakiyeh”, “Falastiniyeh”, ”Souriyeh” as they used to call them . Back then we did not often see a domestic worker from Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Latin America and Africa. However, after civil war the number of Arab domestic worker has decreased because of political situation. After this war, the number of domestic workers from poor countries as Sri Lanka has increased because of the Lebanese demand for them. Coming from another poor countries, these workers- usually a woman- seek to find a job to help her family financially. They leave their families, their husbands and their native country and accept the misery just to save their families and their lives. But these workers are being violated in our country and other countries, they are facing race discrimination and also they are deprived from their freedom. Despite the fact that these people are usually not educated, they leave their families desperate for any job opportunity.

Domestic workers in Lebanon are marginalized, they are violated by the agency and their household since they are economically vulnerable. These workers are deprived from their freedom and their rights are violated.

In a country of around five million people, Lebanon is a shelter for more than 400,000 domestic workers who come from poor countries as Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, C’ôte d’Ivoir, Philippines and many others. (Zahreddine, Nada, et al. "Psychiatric Morbidity”, 50.5; 619-628). After the gulf war in 1990, a huge migration of domestic workers has occurred to the Middle-East especially to Lebanon. These workers are strangers for Lebanese people and they continue to be treated as strangers until their contract expired.

First, some workers do not sign a contract, they seem like a product to buy and to sell. On the other hand, the ones who sign a contract are signing a written form which is considered as a form of slavery. “It is the form of contract slavery which best describes the conditions and arrangements of Sri Lankan and other foreign female domestic workers in Lebanon.”. (Jureidini, Moukarbel; 30.4).

In fact, maids come from other countries, they do not speak, write or even know Arabic. However, the contract that they sign is usually written in Arabic or translated into English. Despite that, the majority of them are not capable to understand English. In addition, they do not understand the details of the contract and its content (Jureidini, Moukarbel; 30.4).

They only know that they are going to work in another country, and sometimes they have no idea about the job. Hence, they are fooled by this paper and also by the agency. In other words, they are told that they are going to work in a hospital, a company or a restaurant, but in fact they are going to work in houses only: they serve, clean and to do all the work except cooking. (Jureidini, Ray; ILO 2002)

This contract is “legal fiction” where it has no legal value comparing to the legally employment agreement. In reality, most of these contracts “detail the need of the employee to be faithful, sincere, honest and dutiful”. (Jureidini, Moukarbel; 30.4). However, it does not include the obligations or the responsibilities of the employers towards their maid and how they should treat her. Consequently, “These women are easily deceived because they are economically vulnerable”.

Every maid is discriminated in many ways. First, the female employer treats her very bad. She prohibits her from using her stuff because she thinks that her maid is unclean. Moreover, these workers are restricted from going out of the house, also the female employer puts restrictions on her movement to limited areas (Hamill; KAFA).

After getting her from the agency, the household takes her identity papers and her passport to make sure that the worker won’t escape. Furthermore, the employer in many cases decides not to pay the maid’s wage or she gives her a maximum of $200, in that way the worker is extremely violated. Besides all of this moral abuse, the worker is verbally abused: they insult