Salma Hassan is Thankful to be Home in Kenya
Salma was overworked, underfed and made to sleep on the balcony.
Worker
Salma Hassan
THE VIDEO
Salma talks about how glad she is to be home.
THE STORY
Salma’s first message to This Is Lebanon was,
“Please help me. It’s now 7pm. This is the first time I’ve gotten a chance to sit down since I woke up in the morning at 5:30. My back aches so much and my feet as well but if I tell my madam she will take me to the office which I’m afraid of.”
Salma is a 21 year old Kenyan domestic worker who came to Lebanon in July 2022 via a recruitment agency. Salma had good reason to fear her agent. He is known to This Is Lebanon from many other cases, including that of Faustina Tay who died under suspicious circumstances in Lebanon. Salma reported being harassed by an employee in the agency. She wrote, “most of us are going through a lot in our employers’ houses because they know that the office will never help us.”
Back at her employer’s house, Salma reported a lack of food, saying she lived mainly on bread and black tea, and was extremely overworked.
“I am sleeping on the balcony…my phone I use in hiding…I tried once to take food from the fridge and hell almost broke loose… I was told never again to try to take something if my madam has not given me.”
Salma’s situation is best described in her own words: “I believe that when I get sick, my employer should get me medication but instead she takes me to the office to be punished…my madam hits me and throws water at me. She is always saying mean things to me at the top of her voice. So many times she has told me that I don’t have a brain. When she has visitors she’ll always tell me to go and clean myself because I smell even when I’ve just showered. On Saturday she asked me to clean the blocked toilet with my bare hands and when I asked for gloves, she refused and got mad and told me to do it while she was pushing my hand to get it in. As for food she says that I did not come here to eat. I came for work and she tells me that I am lucky because she gives me that one meal a day because other girls are not even given food for days.
This Is Lebanon kept in close contact with Salma and, fortunately, through negotiation with her agent, she was able to return to Kenya after her parents bought a return ticket. She returned to Kenya in October 2022. She needed medical treatment on her return. She wrote,
“I want to thank you so much and I will always recommend This Is Lebanon to any domestic worker that is in need of help.”
This Is Lebanon was established in 2017 with the objective of abolishing the KAFALA system in Lebanon by exposing the perpetrators of abuse of migrant domestic workers employed under the system. Ultimately, This Is Lebanon gives a voice to workers and encourages witnesses of abuse to come forward.
Kafala (the Arabic word for sponsorship) refers to the set of administrative practices used to sponsor and employ migrant workers in Lebanon, mostly women from African and Asian countries working for private households. Domestic workers are excluded from the Lebanese labor law and lack basic protections. The KAFALA system protects abusers and denies domestic workers basic human rights.