Christiana is Thankful to Receive a Chunk of her Salary

Christiana Okine from Ghana arrived in Lebanon in February 2019 to work as a domestic worker, and returned home in December, 2021. At the time of her departure, she was still owed $2,100 of the salary she had earned over the previous two years. Christiana was subjected to physical abuse from her employer’s son-in-law, a doctor, and verbal abuse from the whole family. There is an assumption that the more people are educated, the better they treat their employees yet in the cases that we have witnessed at This Is Lebanon,  doctors and lawyers are disproportionately represented. Following ten months of negotiations with Christiana’s employers, she was grateful to finally receive a substantial amount of the salary she was owed. 

This Is Lebanon was established in 2017 with the aim of working towards abolishing the kafala system in Lebanon. Our goal has been to raise awareness about the dangers of the kafala system by exposing the horrific conditions under which migrant domestic workers live and the  perpetrators of abuse as well as advocating with and on behalf of migrant domestic workers. 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 regulations and  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  Lebanese labor law and lack basic protections. The kafala system protects abusers and denies domestic workers of basic human rights.  The high degree of control over workers’ rights provided by the kafala system has led to cases of modern slavery,  human trafficking, and exploitation.