With the deepening of the financial crisis in 2020 and the ‘evaporation’ of depositors’ dollars from local banks, the majority of residents in Lebanon found themselves in deprivation. And in such a situation of total economic and social meltdown, it is again women and minority groups who suffer the most. The most easily disposable or exploitable workers during layoffs were women and migrant workers, most of whom are informal workers who have no social protection or legal safety net.
This has been clear in the crisis of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon since early 2020, demonstrated through the inability of many employers to pay the (very low) salaries in USD and the lack of mechanisms to protect women’s rights against the exploitation of the Kafala system. Additionally, the financial collapse, coupled with the effect of the pandemic lockdown, have had a drastic impact on the lives of women in Lebanon in terms of increased domestic violence, decreased access to health care (specifically reproductive health care) and a general de-prioritisation of women’s needs.