Analysis of Women Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon Free Essay Example, 3250 words

Migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are highly vulnerable to abuse because they are not legally protected by Lebanese labor policies; and their immigration policies are also supported by sponsor-based visas which often bind these workers to their employers for the duration of their contract (Human Rights Watch, p. 21). These migrant domestic workers are also not allowed to change employers unless a release waiver is signed and notarized, and is allowed by the Lebanese officials (Human Rights Watch, p. 21). Under this arrangement, the employers are winners and the migrant domestic workers are at the losing end because it is easy for the employers to abuse the legal policy and to force workers to continue working under unfavorable working conditions and to refuse to grant such a waiver. Incidents of abuse of these migrant domestic helpers in Lebanon have become a usual part of their daily news reports. Monitoring carried out by the Human Rights Watch (p. 21) revealed thousands of complaints from migrant domestic workers, mostly expressing abuse from their employers, including the non-payment of their salaries, long working hours, forced confinement in their workplace, no time or days off, unfavorable living conditions, sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse, and the confiscation of their identity and travel documents. The Human Rights Watch reports that about one-third of foreign domestic workers in Lebanon are denied their time off and about 50% of them work for at least 10 hours in a day (Sterns). In an International Labor Organization survey of Sri Lankan domestic workers in Lebanon, about 88% were not allowed any time off, and almost 30% of these workers expressed that they were often not given enough food to eat (Sterns). In recent years, these incidents of abuse have continued to rise and there seems to be no clear solution to this issue. Moreover, these continued incidents seem to be reflected in the fact about one domestic worker dies each week in Lebanon, and most of these deaths are thru suicide (Migrant Rights). We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of Women Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now