Lebanon: Abolish Kafala (Sponsorship) System

Lebanon’s Labor Ministry should urgently adopt a new standard unified contract that respects and protects the rights of migrant domestic workers as a first step toward abolishing the abusive kafala (sponsorship) system, Human Rights Watch said today. The new model contract should be subject to an oversight mechanism to ensure that it is enforced and that employers who violate its provisions are held accountable.

Adopt Rights-Respecting Contract for Migrant Domestic Workers

“Lebanon’s restrictive and exploitative kafala system traps tens of thousands of migrant domestic workers in potentially harmful situations by tying their legal status to their employer, enabling highly abusive conditions amounting at worst to modern-day slavery,” said Aya Majzoub, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “A revised contract that recognizes and protects workers’ internationally guaranteed rights would be a positive first step to ending the kafala system and protecting migrant domestic workers.”

An estimated 250,000 migrant domestic workers, the majority of them women from African and South East Asian countries, work in Lebanon. They are excluded from Lebanon’s Labor Law protections, including requirements for a minimum wage, limits on working hours, a weekly rest day, overtime pay, and freedom of association.

English | July 27, 2020

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