Most of the workers The Independent interviewed say they have not been paid since January or even before when Lebanon’s financial woes first began to bite, and so few have the resources to get home. Many also do not have their passports. Under the country’s abusive Kafala system, which rights groups say traps them into forced labour and abuse, migrant workers in Lebanon cannot change jobs or leave without permission of their employer who often withhold their documents.
And so, without rights, funds, and passports, Lebanon’s quarter of a million migrant domestic workers are among the most vulnerable in the country’s economic crash.