Abandoned in Lebanon African Migrant Workers Survive on Grassroots Solidarity

On September 4, Lebanon’s caretaker Minister of Labour announced that new system had been finalised which would be a major game-changer in the labour migrant-employer relations. The Standard Unified Contract (SUC), she said would therefore abolish the abusive and inhumane Kafala (sponsorship) system that has for decades been used to bring millions of foreign migrant labour to Lebanon without any guarantees of protection. This came at a time of global outcry about the conditions of domestic workers who have been left on the streets of Beirut and camping around various embassies calling for evacuation amidst the hardest economic crisis that Lebanon has witnessed, following the devaluation of the Lebanese pound relative to the USD.

Too many migrant domestic workers have not been paid by their employers for months and even years before the crisis, others have no travel documents as they are confiscated on arrival by the Lebanese employer. Almost immediately after media interviews, Minister Yammine then contradicted her earlier stand, rushing any hopes that the  Kafala system was abolished.

The measure to actually abolish this system would in fact require a legislative change as an enforcement mechanism to ensure Lebanese employers/sponsors and recruitment agencies will abide by its terms.

English | September 26, 2020

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