Lucy*, a 30-year-old Ghanaian mother of two, contacted This Is Lebanon in December 2020 and reported terrifying conditions with her employer, including sexual harrassment, physical abuse, racism and non-payment of salary.

Lucy arrived in Lebanon on 23 May 2019 to work in the home of Muhammad Abdallah Al-Mir and his wife Sahar. Lucy informed This is Lebanon that she was the victim of sexual harassment at the hand of her employers. In her testimony, she describes how their son Ahmad took every opportunity to sexually harass her. He would find her in the kitchen and touch her breasts. She would hit his hand away, but he repeated this sexual harassment on many occasions. He would remove his penis and tell her to engage in oral sex, stare at her and masturbate. She wrote that he only stopped this behaviour when Lucy threatened to tell his father.

After nine months, Lucy was sent to work for Mohammad’s father, Abdallah Al-Mir and his wife Laila. Unfortunately, the reported abuse started again, not only with visits from Ahmad, but this time also from Ahmad’s grandfather, Abdallah, who would touch Lucy’s breasts and buttocks and try to persuade her into his room for sexual intercourse. Lucy informed usclaimed that there had previously been an Ethiopian domestic worker working for the family who had been subjected to the same abuse.

Lucy also suffered from verbal abuse. She reports how Abdallah’s wife Laila insulted her repeatedly, saying she didn’t want a black domestic worker.