Happiness Paul left Nigeria on 25 June 2018 in search of a better life in Lebanon. Her father had died and she needed to support her family and earn enough to return home and continue her schooling.

Her employer was Randa Dana Mawla in Beirut. In the six months she worked for Randa, Happiness alleges that she was physically and verbally abused by her employer. The abuse included putting her hands around Happiness’ neck and threatening to kill her, and locking her in a room for three days without food. Happiness says that she was not allowed contact with her family and was not even allowed to look out the window. She alleges that Randa constantly called her names such as ‘donkey’ and ‘animal’.

The Lebanese General Security, the governing body which oversees all domestic workers and their security, amongst other functions, have told Happiness that Randa is well known to them for her abuse of previous domestic workers. Perhaps the publicity generated by this article will encourage Randa to reconsider how she treats her employees.

Happiness was also mistreated by one of Randa’s two daughters, Dana, age 19. Randa has another daughter, Farah, who is in her twenties. In one spiteful act, when Happiness gave Dana her freshly ironed clothes, she threw them on the ground saying they weren’t ironed properly and ordered her to iron everything again.

Shortly before Christmas, Randa threw Happiness’ personal possessions out of the door and told her to leave. She owed her two months’ salary. Happiness didn’t know anyone in Lebanon so she stopped a taxi and asked to be taken to General Security. She told them she wanted to stay in the jail since she didn’t know anybody and didn’t even have a phone to call her family. General Security called Randa’s husband who said there was no complaint against her. General Security then paid for a taxi to take Happiness to the Nigerian embassy. Randa refused all phone calls from the embassy; she didn’t respond to any calls from This Is Lebanon either.

General Security know Randa well. A former domestic worker from Nigeria, Mary, left the clutches of Randa’s employment, sick from overwork and a lack of food. Mr. El Mawla was summoned to General Security and asked if the family had any complaints against Happiness. To his credit, he responded in the negative; however, even he refused to pay for her ticket home or hand over her passport.

Happiness spent 9 months in the embassy shelter before travelling home. Her own family paid for the air ticket and she is still owed two months’ salary. Were it not for the Kafala system, Happiness would have been able to work while waiting for her situation to be resolved. Under Kafala, her legal status was tied to her abuser who refused to release her or let her go home. She was effectively a prisoner both inside Randa’s house and also in the shelter.

Happiness has now registered in college and is furthering her education.