Lebanon’s migrant workers demand rights
Although migrant workers in Lebanon are offered little legal protection, a number of associations and activists are working to improve their situation.
An array of colorful flags from around the world were waved alongside bright banners while chants in French, English and Arabic filled the air on May 4, as activists, advocates and workers took to Beirut’s streets to demand legal protection for migrant domestic workers.
“Confiscating salary, shameful, shameful! Confiscating passport, shameful, shameful!”
The parade was part of a three-day event this past weekend organized by the Migrant Domestic Workers Consortium to raise awareness and demand the government give legal protection to migrant domestic workers in the country.
More than a quarter of a million migrant domestic workers are estimated to work in Lebanon. Most come from Ethiopia, the Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, among other African and Asian countries. Though there are difficulties for all migrant workers in Lebanon, it is the migrant domestic workers who are most vulnerable. The exclusion of migrant domestic workers under Lebanon’s labor law prevents them from benefiting from general protections afforded to workers in other sectors, such as annual and sick leave, a minimum wage, set working hours, the right to change employers and the ability to create associations, among other things.
