HRW: Lebanon must protect domestic workers' rights

Foreign domestic workers carry banners during a protest marking the International Women's Day in Beirut Human Rights Watch urged Lebanon Friday to swiftly reform laws governing the country's domestic workers in a bid to limit cases of abuse, and asked the government to announce the result of the probe into the abuse and subsequent suicide of an Ethiopian housemaid.
“Lebanese authorities should act quickly to reform restrictive visa regulations and adopt a labor law on domestic work to address high levels of abuse and deaths among migrant domestic workers,” HRW along with seven civil society groups said in a statement.
They also asked the government, which announced it would open an investigation into the beating and suicide of Ethiopian domestic worker Alem Dechasa-Desisa, to reveal the outcome of the probe.
In a video released by LBCI last week, Dechasa-Desisa, 33, was seen moaning as a man, later identified as Ali Mahfouz, aided by another man, beat and forced her into a car outside the Ethiopian consulate.
Two days later she committed suicide at the Psychiatrique de la Croix Hospital.
The incident outside the consulate drew wide condemnation of the government's inaction by civil rights groups, who also cited a culture of impunity when it comes to the abuse of domestic workers in Lebanon.
The eight groups that signed the statement issued by HRW are Human Rights Watch, Caritas Lebanon Migrant Centre, KAFA (Enough) Violence & Exploitation, Anti Racism Movement, Amel Association International, Insan, Danish Refugee Council, and Nasawiya.
The statement said that in a 2008 report, HRW found that there had been an average of one death a week from unnatural causes among domestic workers in Lebanon, including suicide and falls from tall buildings.
It also cited information prepared by KAFA Violence & Exploitation, a Lebanese women’s rights group, about nine deaths in August 2010.
The statement also said that 200,000 domestic workers are employed in Lebanon, adding that they are primarily from Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and Nepal but that they are excluded from the country’s labour law.
“[Domestic workers are] subject to restrictive immigration rules based on employer-specific sponsorship that puts workers at risk of exploitation and makes it difficult for them to leave abusive employers,” it said.
Countries such as the Philippines and Ethiopia have banned their citizens from working in Lebanon due to the lack of protection of domestic workers. Yet Filipino and Ethiopian nationals continue to come to Lebanon for work.
In Early February, Lebanon signed a memorandum of understanding with the Philippines to implement regulations governing the recruitment and working practices of Filipino domestic workers in a bid to lift the current ban.
HRW said that “the most common complaints documented by the embassies of labor-sending countries and civil society groups include mistreatment by recruiters, non-payment or delayed payment of wages, forced confinement to the workplace, a refusal to provide any time off for the worker, forced labour, and verbal and physical abuse.”
The organisation also condemned a 2009 compulsory standard employment contract as lacking proper protection and said it was only available in Arabic so far.
“Lebanon voted in favor of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, adopted in June 2011, but has yet to take steps to ratify the treaty or bring itself in compliance,” HRW said, adding that the convention was aimed at offering domestic workers labour protection and monitoring recruitment agencies.There are thought to be several hundred thousand foreign migrant workers in Lebanon, including around 200,000 domestic workers.