UPDATES TO KAFALA
The definitive place to get the latest updates on Kafala.
February 18, 2020 | English
The Lebanese revolution brought hundreds of thousands into the streets with aspirations for a new country free from the grip of a corrupt elite. Lebanese from every social group seem empowered by the sense that their country's destiny finally lies in their hands. But for foreign domestic workers, some of the more powerless members of society, taking part in shaping tomorrow’s Lebanon is still not within reach. Many cannot imagine joining protesters in the streets as they are trapped in homes, barred access to the outside world, and living at the mercy of their employers — conditions made possible by the oppressive kafala system.
February 7, 2020 | English
In a video report on Monday, Al Jazeera described the worsening plight of migrant workers in Lebanon, where a deep economic crisis has compounded the vulnerable position they hold in the country’s workforce. Migrant workers in Lebanon are already considered to be at high risk of exploitation.
February 6, 2020 | French
Frappés de plein fouet par la crise, les travailleurs bangladais réclament l’aide de leur ambassade pour regagner leur pays.
February 4, 2020 | English
BEIRUT: Some 400 Bangladeshi migrants gathered outside the Bangladeshi Embassy in Bir Hassan in the south of Beirut Tuesday. They crowd was trying to gain entrance to the embassy to have their exit visas expedited in order to leave Lebanon.
January 21, 2020 | English
BEIRUT: The Labor Ministry has launched an investigation into the apparent suicide of a domestic worker in Beirut Tuesday, a statement from the ministry said.
January 13, 2020 | English
Lebanon’s kafala system exploits migrant domestic workers and leaves them prone to physical and emotional abuse, with many turning to suicide as their only way out.
January 9, 2020 | English
In what Ethiopians living in the Lebanese capital of Beirut referred to as a “lashing out,” a visiting Ethiopian diplomat hosting members of the Ethiopian expat community in the country spent a half hour lecturing his audience on the ills of speaking with media, in particular Addis Standard, apparently irate over the magazine’s investigative reporting on the plight faced by Ethiopian domestic workers in Lebanon this year.
November 21, 2019 | English
November 21/2019 – Under Lebanon’s horrific Kafala (‘sponsorship’) system, the legal status of migrant domestic workers is tied to that of their employers. In effect this means that if, out of desperation, she flees the house, she automatically becomes an illegal alien. On the streets of Lebanon, she can find herself as vulnerable, if not more so, than in the abusive household that she fled. And if caught, she could be thrown in prison. In some, but by no means rare, cases, these women end up killing themselves or getting killed.
September 9, 2019 | English
Within a few hours of arriving in Beirut I notice the migrant domestic workers, all of Asian and African descent, walking along the street, as upper class Lebanese drive by in expensive sports cars. As I walk around the upscale neighbourhood of Achrafieh, I encounter a woman of Asian heritage with a black eye walking a French bulldog. Later, I spot a Lebanese man aggressively dragging a brown-skinned woman by the wrist. He catches my eye and sneers. Suddenly, I become hyper-aware of both my ethnicity and the racial violence in this deeply divided city.
July 16, 2019 | English
The Lebanese Ministry of Labor announced Monday that it has developed a new plan to enforce laws against undocumented foreign workers, starting next week.