Migrant workers have long suffered human rights violations under Lebanon’s Kafala system, which leaves them vulnerable to abuse by tying the residency of domestic workers to the sponsorship of a Lebanese citizen.
Activist groups have used the term “modern slavery” to describe the type of contract that binds foreign workers in Lebanon and grants their sponsors full authority and power over them.
Lamia Yammine, the minister of Labour, went as far as to say that the new contract “abolishes the sponsorship system and enshrines the rights of migrant domestic workers.”