Women worked to death in Lebanon

Four Ethiopian domestic workers are thought to have killed themselves in three weeks. Lebanon must protect these women

They mop floors, take out the rubbish, walk the dog, buy groceries and care for the children, the elderly or disabled. Many a well-to-do and lower middle class Lebanese family relies on migrant domestic workers to take care of their household, but when it comes to providing for these women, not all return the favour.

Migrant domestic workers – women who work as live-in or freelance housekeepers, cooks, and nannies – form a vital presence in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East, where women's increased participation in the workforce has not been accompanied by state-backed social or childcare services.

There are thought to be about 200,000 women, mostly from the Philippines, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka, in Lebanon alone. But although they are becoming an intrinsic part of the country's social fabric, their contribution is often overlooked. While many Lebanese people are careful to ensure their housekeepers are well treated, a significant number abuse them. In extreme cases, migrant domestic workers are killed or kill themselves.

The spate of suicides has become so bad in recent weeks it prompted Lebanese blogger Wissam to launch the grimly named Ethiopian Suicides blog. The website is dedicated to monitoring media reports on the deaths of foreign migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. "I have a dream," Wissam says. "That migrant domestic workers will be treated humanely in Lebanon and will stop trying to commit or commit[ting] suicide."

In the last three weeks alone, Wissam notes, four Ethiopian women have died. Lebanese police say the deaths of Kassaye Atsegenet, 24, Saneet Mariam, 30, Matente Kebede Zeditu, 26, Tezeta Yalmiya, 26 were probably suicides. But as human rights activists here will testify, the truth about what happened to them may never be known because police usually only take into account the employer's testimony. Migrants who survive abuse or suicide attempts are not usually provided with a translator, meaning their version of events often does not get registered with officials.

Sadly, violations against such workers occur throughout the region and in some cases the women end up in slave-like conditions.

Reflecting the concern of sender countries for the wellbeing of their citizens, Ethiopia and the Philippines have placed bans on working in Lebanon and Jordan, but this has not stemmed the flow of illegal migrants smuggled in through third countries. Without the necessary work papers and embassy support, migrant women become even more vulnerable to human rights abuses.

One reason the women are driven to the edge is that, in Lebanon at least, they are not given protection under the country's labour law. Such exclusion means that those who withhold salaries, confiscate passports, confine their employees to the house or otherwise abuse them, can literally get away with murder. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that five months after parliamentary elections, a Lebanese government is only now being formed.

The campaign to grant migrant domestic workers greater rights in the region has been led by Human Rights Watch. This summer, it contacted Lebanese beach resorts and found that 17 out of 27 private facilities practised some form of discrimination against such women by prohibiting them from swimming in the pool or even the Mediterranean sea.

A study conducted by the organisation last year found that more than one migrant domestic worker was dying in Lebanon each week – mostly from suspected suicide or by falling off a balcony while trying to escape abusive employers. The numbers sent ripples throughout the rights community and resulted in far more sustained local media coverage on the issue of domestic migrant workers. Judging by Wissam's recent statistics, however, this does not appear to have persuaded the authorities to take sufficient measures to protect their rights.

The embassies of countries that supply migrant workers have a duty to protect their citizens. They could start by offering amnesty and assistance to all illegal workers, increasing their legal protection capabilities and properly informing women at home of their rights and responsibilities while working abroad. Many countries, such as Nepal or Madagascar, which are sending women to the Middle East in increasing numbers, would do well to increase their diplomatic representation from consular level to embassies.

Many migrant workers come to the Middle East seeking a better life for the families they left behind. The Lebanese themselves have a long history of migration and hardship, and should know first-hand the difficulties of living and working in a foreign country. Just as many Lebanese abroad work hard with the hopes of eventually returning home, the Lebanese should ensure that these women get to go back to their countries – alive and well, not in body bags.


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53 comments, displaying oldest first

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  • locheil

    10 November 2009 9:11PM

    This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.

  • richesrant

    10 November 2009 9:13PM

    in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East, where women's increased participation in the workforce has not been accompanied by state-backed social or childcare services.

    And other places I could mention.

  • corrocamino

    10 November 2009 9:48PM

    Any given sectarian Lebanese (and they are all sectarian at least in a practical sense, are they not?) has all he/she can handle in trying to ward off the depredations of the other sects, not to mention intermittent foreign attack. When you're fighting desperately for your own life and livelihood, third parties become nonentities. (I'm not condoning the mistreatment or neglect.)

  • harryboy

    10 November 2009 9:53PM

    send for Beatrix Campbell, OBE..............

  • Indypops

    10 November 2009 10:35PM

    I knew that Mrs Scotland was up to no good employing that illegal immigrant to do all her shopping, dog walking, scrubbing floors and cleaning the loos - real slave labour, but not in Lebanon. No, this was sanctioned by the UKs own government, and all of it paid for, minimum-wage-style, out of the grand law-breaking baronesses hundreds of thousands. There's justice for you!

  • afancdogge

    10 November 2009 10:53PM

    The exploitation of the weak and vulnerable is not confined to Lebanon - however, it is Lebanon we are discussing.

    However many times the abuse of foreign workers - separated from home and family - is brought to the attention of the world very little is ever done about it. The second class status of the thousands of Palestinians in Lebanon is never addressed.

    How pressure can be exerted from outside the country is never clear; publicity, the world loking on in anger etc. has little effect.

    There is an increasing number of deperate people in the world willing to go as migrant workers in the hope of bettering their own lot and that of their family - often a vain hope.

    In the cases you mention there is clearly a failure of the authorities to investigate these deaths - clearly the fate of these women is of little importance to them.

    International regulation is impossible. The gvts. of vulnerable nations could be more active but could hardly forbid citizens to go abroad. It falls in the end to the host society, and individuals within it , to exercise humanity and to take proper care of their visiting workers. We are, I fear, a long way from this. The discrepencies between rich and poor are widening - the opportunities for exploitation increasing.

    These deaths will affect their families at home ; we can but hope that as this news spreads fewer and fewer women will move to Lebanon looking for work and a better life.

    Leni

  • afancdogge

    10 November 2009 10:56PM

    Indypops

    Yes it happens here too - the greedy exploiting the needy. We need to be more determined in our objection to the abuse of the vulnerable here in UK.

    Leni

  • hillviewstar

    10 November 2009 11:21PM

    There is no dignity in poverty.

    Never been to the Lebanon - hear its lovely in parts with a rich heritage but could believe that these caring sharing types will not give a toss about migrant workers bit like most of the mid east. Whether it is the sun and gold resort in the desert or the closed kingdom you are on their turf and the UK for all its shite seems a big bit nicer.

  • ShireReeve2

    11 November 2009 12:36AM

    @ afancdogge

    "we can but hope that as this news spreads fewer and fewer women will move to Lebanon looking for work and a better life."

    Hear, hear. That goes for Britain too.

  • Clunie

    11 November 2009 12:38AM

    hillviewstar: I've been to Lebanon, it's lovely. I think many migrant workers are treated like shit in many countries across Arabia and of course there is no bloody excuse. Even more shamefully, they are fairly regularly tortured and/or killed by employers, who either get a derisory fine and maybe a couple of months in prison or are let off entirely, on the ''justification'' that they were ''provoked.''

    Let's not forget, though, that there are many good people across Arabia, as Dahila Mahdawi's excellent article points out, who are disgusted and ashamed at the horrific abuse of both indigenous and immigrant minorities, and who are campaigning for change. I won't even attempt to say that Britain's that bad, but we certainly aren't much of a welcoming place for any immigrants at the moment, I'd think.

    Also, I suspect that many people have a false impression from seeing the Saudi royals and the other rich Gulfies coming to Britain that Arabs, especially Gulf ones, are loaded, lazy and spend their time lounging around smoking shisha or shopping while the servants wait on them and their super-spoilt children hand and foot.

    Those do exist of course, but they really are the tiny minority overall - apart from the fact that not all the rich Gulfies are such oafs and that many indigenous people in countries like Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Saudi, Yemen, etc are dirt poor themselves, there are also numerous indigenous Arabs who are treated as non-people, like the Gulf bedoons (bedoon = stateless, not to be confused with bedouin) of Kuwait, the UAE and other countries there who despite being indigenous have no rights whatsoever (including not being issued with birth certificates, no right to education, healthcare, employment, etc (oh, and no death certificates either - basically they don't really exist officially despite being a sizeable population since acknowledging them would mean the governments would have to give them citizenship). There are vast shack ghettoes for the bedoon population in Kuwait, not nice in 50 degree heat.

    There are also the Shia minorities in Gulf nations, who are often treated as second-class citizens. Then there are the Palestinian refugees and their descendants denied citizenship by all Arab countries (apart ironically from in Saddam Hussein's Iraq). Then there are the Egyptian workers in the Gulf - also Arab, but also often treated like dirt. Etc, etc, etc.

    Generalisations about Arabs are like generalisations about Europeans, a few hundred million people scattered across different nations with different cultures are certainly not a homogenous population.

  • jomet

    11 November 2009 12:38AM

    The miserable cowards that make up the majority of Lebanese employing maids in Lebanon deserve to be put in jail for their criminal acts against these poor vulnerable young ladies. I had the misfortune to witness the attitude of the Lebanese public towards these innocent women. It was nothing short of disgusting. The Lebanese people with some exceptions are a miserable lot well deserving of the poor state of their country. The tragedy is that they are so ignorant that they may be currently beyond help. My heart goes out to the young maids in Lebanon. Can we help them from the West and if so how?

  • EntropyIsHere

    11 November 2009 12:58AM

    I don doubt a word of this but I still fail to see the point of the article.

    Lets flip it - and imagine an opinion piece in some Lebanese rag decrying the state of women trafficked into the UK to suck British cock. I guess any British reaction would go something like: '...well yes, but pls sort out your own mess first, before you start telling us what to do...'

    In other words Dalila, the implicit assumption in this article is that Britain is some moral artiber - and it simply ain't so.

  • Clunie

    11 November 2009 1:02AM

    ShireReeve: If I didn't know better, I'd think you were just looking for excuses to pour out hatred on all Muslims - not just those people or regimes responsible for wrongs, but all Muslims, men, women and children since you don't bother to differentiate - ''they're all the same, innit?'' (presumably including Dahila Mahdawi, Wissam whose blog she links to, any and all Muslims who campaign to liberalise their societies, move things forward, etc - heck, they're all dayum Moozlims, y'know?). But then that would make you a pathetic bigot and I'm sure you're far too intelligent to be that, eh?

    By the way, contemporary slavery is also recorded in Bolivia, Burma, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Jamaica, North Korea and Togo, according to the US State Department. But the slavery there doesn't interest you because it's not an excuse to take another swipe at all Muslims. Why not just go back to JihadWatch, the BNP home page or wherever else it is you prefer to pour out your loathing of all Muslims, rather than hanging around on CiF with us softie liberal progressive types? I guess even trolls need somewhere to call home though.

  • imbrian

    11 November 2009 1:04AM

    Why should I care about one particular example of mid-Eastern venality over all the rest? I don't. I expect that Lebanon is a shining moral beacon of exemplary social conduct by comparison with Saudi. My only concern is to restrict, as far as possible, their collective access to the UK and the West. Hypocrites like Ms Scotland are not helpful in this regard.

  • Clunie

    11 November 2009 1:14AM

    imbrian: Reading some of the posts from the BNP and ENP loons, I increasingly feel the same way about English immigrants coming to Scotland - but then I remind myself that most English folk really are decent, fair minded people, the majority aren't hateful bigots who hate anyone non-white. You can try speaking for England (though I suspect some other English would object), but give the ''my UK'' shite a rest. And if you're Scots, oh dear - just as well the BNP don't have a snowball's chance in hell here.

  • afancdogge

    11 November 2009 1:14AM

    Clunie

    Well said you good woman you. The plight of refugees and the stateless across many countries is deplorable. There is little excuse in many of the oil rich nations to mistreat those living amongst them - citizens or otherwise. Cheap labour is profitable, exploitation and mistreatment commonplace - there are no courts of appeal and no means of redress.

    Many Palestinians have now let Iraq - a sizeable portion of them living now in Lebanese refuge camps adding to the misery. They are seen as non peole.

    There are also some very good people - even among the rich - and it is important to say this again and again. The stereotyping of millions, as happens all too often. is dangerous, stupid and will little to help the marginalised and rejected.

    Leni

  • ShireReeve2

    11 November 2009 1:19AM

    @ Clunie

    "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were just looking for excuses to pour out hatred on all Muslims"

    Isn't the topic about Lebanon, which is majority Muslim?

  • imbrian

    11 November 2009 1:26AM

    This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.

  • davidwayneosedach

    11 November 2009 1:26AM

    This sounds like human trafficking. Sadly we have a problem with that here in the United States.

  • Clunie

    11 November 2009 1:39AM

    afcandogge: Thanks and the same to you - and more thanks for renewing my faith there! Amen to all you say, the moronic stereotyping of millions of people seems to be getting increasingly mainstream and ''acceptable,'' despite the horrific roads that's taken humanity down historically, which I find pretty alarming.

    I'm getting so tired of seeing the same old stereoytypes dragged out again and again to demonise millions of people (or hundreds of millions or over a billion, etc) - either from hateful idiots claiming to represent all the people of any nation (including the UK) or the extrapolating of the worst of a nation/people/faith to represent the whole, in order to pin all the world's woes on Muslims/non-white folk, or whoever their particular hate group is.

    The funniest (in a bleak way) thing is that many of the bigots are just the mirror reflection of those they claim to detest - fundamentalists who tar all those not in their horrible, hateful little in-group, not hating on command, as race traitors/subhumans/infidels and wanting to see ''their'' nation/s ''cleansed'' and turned into some fantasy of what it was ''before the vile outsiders polluted our culture.'' I'm all for sticking the lot of them on a deserted island and letting them fight it out among themselves. I hear the Galapagos Islands are fairly empty, though it would be cruel to the wildlife. Back to the drawing board on that plan, I guess.

    Sorry for waffling, going to go off to bed here. Thanks again. Night night.

  • Clunie

    11 November 2009 1:44AM

    imbrian: You're American and moaning about immigrants? Unless you're a native American, LMAO. And you're moaning about immigrants to Britain? Er, if you're in Britain from the US, you're an immigrant too.

    As for ''some of my best friends are black,'' thanks for completing my BNP catchphrase bingo card. Full House! I do hope you're right on independence. Fingers tightly crossed here.

    This time I really am going off to bed. Tootle pip.

  • islamophobiasucks

    11 November 2009 1:52AM

    Cruelty towards servants is completely against the teachings of Islam. The Prophet Muhammed's view on this matter is made clear by the following quotes:
    1) 'When the servant of anyone amongst you prepares food for him and he serves him after having sat close to (and undergoing the hardship of) heat and smoke, he should ask him (the servant) to sit alongside and ask him to eat (along with him), and if the food seems to run short, then he (the employer) should spare some portion for him (from his own share)'.
    2) Narrated Al-Ma'rur (a companion of the Prophet): "I met Abu Dhar who was wearing a cloak and his servant was similarly dressed, I asked the reason for this (similarity of dress) and he replied, "I abused a person by calling his mother with bad names, (whereupon) the Prophet admonished me, 'O Abu Dhar! Did you abuse him by calling his mother with bad names?, you still retain some characteristics of ignorance. Your servants are your brothers and Allah has put them under your command. So whoever has a brother under his command should feed him of what he eats and dress him of (the clothing) what he wears. Do not ask them (servants) to do anything beyond their capacity (power) and if you do so, then help them' ".
    3) Another companion of the Prophet, Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari, reported: "I was beating my servant, (and) I heard a voice behind me (saying): 'Abu Mas'ud, bear in mind that Allah has more dominance over you than you have over him (the servant)'. I turned around and (there stood) Allah's Messenger. I said: Allah's Messenger, I (hereby) set him free for the sake of Allah. Thereupon he replied: 'Had you not done so, (the gates of) Hell would have opened for you (on account of your cruelty)' ".
    From these quotes, it becomes apparent that the teachings of Islam are not being heeded by self- professed Muslims involved in such cruelty in places such as Lebanon, 'Saudi' Arabia, Jordan etc, due to the fact that, according to Islam:
    a) Servants are to be treated equally by the employer, the same way that the employer treats his brothers (i.e. family members).
    b) Servants are to be treated with care and kindness, fed and dressed the same as the employer.
    c) Servants are not allowed to be beaten. Those who have beaten their servants are required to release them (with adequate compensation), refusal to do so results in punishment in the hereafter.

  • Auric

    11 November 2009 3:14AM

    I`m curious about a minor point and would love to hear the author`s answer -

    Many a well-to-do and lower middle class Lebanese family relies on migrant domestic workers

    Well-to-do I understand. `Got money` - so can pay for a maid. `Lower middle class` puzzles me.

    Are you writing that on the assumption that the readers (British in the main) are obsessed by class and want the citizens of other countries to be put in that framework so they understand it? Or do you really have a `class system` in Lebanon?

    As I say, I`m curious. I remember reading about the then governor of Hong Kong, Patten, visiting a church in what the paper called a `working class` area of Hong Kong. Why not just `lower income`? Why try to see the world through a distorted UK prism? The people he was talking about would agree that they were lowish income - they would not agree they were stuck in some `class`. That`s a UK concept - which doesn`t even apply to most of us.

  • Auric

    11 November 2009 3:25AM

    Incidentally, I`m not quite sure why Islam has been brought into the debate. Surely despite all efforts Lebanon still has a very large Christian population? And at a guess on average better educated and/or better off than the others - certainly that is the pattern in a lot of the Muslim world - so perhaps more likely to have a maid.

    So unless the author or someone who knows can inform us otherwise, surely we should assume that both Muslims and Christians could be involved in this harsh treatment.

    I agree if I was the author and Lebanese I would not be keen on saying either `the perps are mainly Muslim` OR `the perps are mainly Christian`.

  • islamophobiasucks

    11 November 2009 4:13AM

    Auric: 'Why try to see the world through a distorted UK prism?', as opposed to a distorted US prism?.
    There are class divisions in the US, however, they are not referred to as such, e.g. 'Trailer trash', 'Preppie', 'Aberzombies' etc.
    If you're born into a rich family in the US, your life prospects are fairly good, whereas if you're born into a poor family, you won't be able to afford to go to college (or have access to decent healthcare) and will most likely end up as a slave to capitalism or as cannon- fodder for the military- industrial complex.
    Obama is remarkable because he is one of the relatively few exceptions to this norm.

  • lovemymod

    11 November 2009 4:49AM

    we have a large Lebanese community in South Africa - Christians with what can only be described as a fixation with the Virgin Mary followed closely by the ceder tree. To describe the culture in one word I would use "brutish."

  • Auric

    11 November 2009 4:56AM

    Islamophobiasucks

    You are missing my point, I think.

    You use the word `class` - I`d use `income`. I`d have two reasons for doing so -
    A) `Class` is so value-laden in the UK (and maybe in some other countries) that it makes debate very difficult.

    B) Whereas to all of us (I hope) 1,000 dollars is 1,000 dollars, and being in the top 10% of incomes can be given a meaning, who is `lower middle class` in the UK? in Lebanon? In India? Ten people, ten answers, I think.

    Using `class` in social debates (with no definition of what it means) is like trying to debate global warming just using words like `hot` or `cold` rather than degrees centigrade or sea levels. The debate just gets lost in word games.

  • Elbatan

    11 November 2009 5:31AM

    "But as every guardianista will know, they are still far,far better off amongst those charming diverse and multicultural middle eastern people than they would be living in the racist hellhole that is modern Britain".

    We're not talking about the UK here, where in point of fact we do have legislation to protect foreign workers. My wife was a (brown) imigrant to the UK and we currently live in the Middle East and have an Ethiopan maid, and in both cases we have positive stories to tell, both for my wife's UK experience and our maid's Middle East experience.

    The point of this article is the lack of protection for domestic workers and there is no arguing with this point. Let's hope that more articles like his appear and highlight cases of human rights abuse. That is the function of the press.

    This is not a pissing contest about who abuses who the most, no country is perfect and no individual is free of responsibility for human rights abuses as we are all consumers of products that are part of this chain of events.

    Please remember the complexity of the issue and don't boil it down into simplicities.

  • Teacup

    11 November 2009 7:10AM

    Afancdogge and Clunie,

    Thank you both for humane posts.

    Islamphobiasucks,

    You beat me to pointing out that Islam insists on equality of all Muslims. At least in Kerala where I come from and in Assam where I live and work, the more traditional Muslims actually abide by this. Amazing in our socially stratified society!

  • redfoot

    11 November 2009 7:30AM

    @ Auric

    In Singapore, where there is most definitely a class system, based on ethnicity, wealth, profession, postcode and language, it's the Indonesians and Filipinas who are subject to 'maid abuse'. The term is common here, and there is never too long a pause between one case of maid abuse being reported and the next. Thankfully the embassies have enough teeth to protect their workers, and of course, Singapore has laws in place to deal with those who can be prosecuted. Still, the ongoing lack of respect for those women who raise the children and clean the toilets is remarkable.

    To clarify, I am using the term class to describe a hierarchic system where the attributes listed at the top will raise or lower a person in perceived value/worth according to everyone else in the race.

    Oh, and there is no discernable religious bias in Singapore relating to maid abuse.

  • coruja

    11 November 2009 7:38AM

    If you hire some one to clean up your sh*t, you eventually end up treating them like sh*t.

  • Gargoil

    11 November 2009 7:41AM

    @ Islamaphobiasucks

    Isn't "servant" in your quotes more usually translated as "slave"?

    St Paul also told masters to be kind to their slaves. You have to see these quotes in the context of the times but we don't exactly applaud him for it today.

  • MoveAnyMountain

    11 November 2009 7:57AM

    islamophobiasucks

    Cruelty towards servants is completely against the teachings of Islam.

    That may be so but what you have done, of course, is quoted a series of aHadith and traditions that refer to slaves, not servants.

    There is a difference. Not that such regulations regarding slaves ever seem to have been enforced or been anything other than scholars' idealism (not a few of whom were descendents of slaves themselves).

    From these quotes, it becomes apparent that the teachings of Islam are not being heeded by self- professed Muslims involved in such cruelty in places such as Lebanon, 'Saudi' Arabia, Jordan etc, due to the fact that, according to Islam:

    And yet Islam is an infinitely flexible doctrine, or set of doctrines, and so you can trivially find prohibitions on, for instance, on marrying girls to people who are beneath them socially.

  • 29numbers

    11 November 2009 8:00AM

    locheil

    But as every guardianista will know, they are still far,far better off amongst those charming diverse and multicultural middle eastern people than they would be living in the racist hellhole that is modern Britain.

    Are you inviting them to come?

  • Redtakesy

    11 November 2009 8:50AM

    For those who are interested, Caritas Lebanon runs a Centre whose work focuses on helping migrant workers in Lebanon generally, and particularly female migrant domestic workers (as they constitute a large proportion of the migrant population in Lebanon, not to mention one that, as is noted, is particularly vulnerable). More details on their website: http://www.caritasmigrant.org.lb/ (English and French). If you search for "Maid in Lebanon" on youtube, they've also produced some interesting videos. This should not be read as any suggestion that Christians or Muslims treat their domestic workers better or worse, as the issue seems to be polarised into.

    The situation of migrant domestic workers worldwide is also going to be discussed at the ILO next year with the view of coming up with some kind of international standards for domestic workers in general (most domestic work involving some kind of migration, internal or international). Lebanon has actually introduced a unified contract for migrant domestic workers, I think, based on a standard contract developed with UNIFEM (it certainly has been introduced in Jordan and the UAE: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---gender/documents/publication/wcms_097023.pdf).

    I think this is an interesting and important subject (migration for domestic work is more significant than you might think, and brings with it particular vulnerabilities and risks) and hope these links are interesting and useful.

  • CircusMaximus

    11 November 2009 9:33AM

    corracomino

    When you're fighting desperately for your own life and livelihood, third parties become nonentities. (I'm not condoning the mistreatment or neglect.)

    Err No...that's exactly what you are trying to do, otherwise why mention it?

  • JohnnyDarko

    11 November 2009 9:50AM

    With reference to the contribution of Islamophobiasucks (and I agree it does)....servants, servants, servants......instead of rummaging around in the dim and distant past for the last word on how to treat 'servants' how about this for a proposition:-
    in this the early 21st century, no-one ANYWHERE has SERVANTS They have employees who should have the full protection of labour laws.

    The very term 'servant' is antiquarian and implies subjugation and exploitation.
    There!

  • Macnelson

    11 November 2009 9:59AM

    Women are worked to death in many Countries,
    Our women are worked to death in the health
    service and no one gives a fig.

  • Matzpen

    11 November 2009 10:01AM

    Dalila Mahdawi

    This is certainly real problem in the region - but it is by no means exclusively an Arab one.

    The turn against the exploitation of Arab labour since 1987, has led Israel to rely heavily on immigrant labour from South East Asia to plug the gaps in the Jewish economy.

    Their position is scarcely better than those shameful conditions you have described in Lebanon.

  • notinuse

    11 November 2009 10:03AM

    The report below signifies that the four women must have been detained as prisoners/hostages.

    May 5, 2008: Ethiopia bans workers from Lebanon
    The Ministry of Labor and Migration has banned Ethiopian workers from migrating to Lebanon due to incidents of mistreatment of Ethiopian domestic workers in Beirut. The ban was put in to effect on April 22, 2008.
    According to reports, Ethiopian domestic workers are often victims of domestic violence, including physical abuse, rape, and murder. It is common practice for employers to confiscate the passports of their domestic workers, rendering them virtual prisoners.
    Source: MiddleEastDesk.org

  • papallacta

    11 November 2009 10:14AM

    While learning this news upsets me, I don't know if I agree with the last paragraph. I don't think the Lebanese in Lebanon can be sympathetic to migrant workers simply because of the Lebanese diaspora. I don't know exactly what percentage went back to the country, but I would guess that the ones who are there are decendants of those privileged--or strong-willed--enough to stay. It would be like saying the Irish need to be sympathetic to migrant workers given the Irish diaspora, when in reality many Irish in Ireland today don't identify strongly with that part of their history. Just food for thought.

  • Redtakesy

    11 November 2009 10:23AM

    papallacta: I think the general idea is that countries whose citizens have benefited or indeed not from emigration should perhaps build these experiences into how they treat migrants in their own countries. Where Lebanese abroad have faced xenophobia, say, they know the effects of xenophobia and should be more disinclined to make others suffer as they have. Equally, where they have been welcomed, they should be inclined to welcome others in a same way. It's idealistic, but is indeed recognised - rhetorically, at least - by a number of governments of countries who have gone from being countries of emigration to countries of immigration. Portugal, for example, has quite a strong network of integration assistance, which they like to say is based on exactly the experiences of Portuguese abroad.

  • corrocamino

    11 November 2009 11:38AM

    @CircusMaximus

    corracomino

    When you're fighting desperately for your own life and livelihood, third parties become nonentities. (I'm not condoning the mistreatment or neglect.)

    Err No...that's exactly what you are trying to do, otherwise why mention it?

    Err, no...that is not exactly what I am trying to do. I am engaging in empiricism, rather than facile moral posturing, which is what you are trying to do.

  • sharpeye

    11 November 2009 11:58AM

    Migrant workers, servants, people, people...wait a minute...we are talking about exploitation of WOMEN...why not use the word women..is it so shameful to avoid it? In many languages you would have to use the feminine form. English is conveniently vague. The abuse of women as domestic workers is wide spread...too wide spread, here in Europe too.
    Articles like this bring to light the lack of human rights of female migrant workers but also of the blasé attitude of the employers. Christian or Moslem we all have it in us to abuse those we see as less especially women.

  • afancdogge

    11 November 2009 12:21PM

    Redtakesy

    Thanks for link.

    International standards and agreements are an important step - the guarantee of such standards being enforced by individual host countries will not be so easy.

    The plight of resident domestic workers can be horrendous - in many cases children are used in this capacity. Women and children can be imprisoned within a household with no access to outside help - this would seem to have been the case with the women who fell from balconies.

    The other side to this story is the importance of 'guest worker' schemes to the countries from which the workers come. I read that the amount of money going regularly to poorer countries from relatives working abroad is estimated to exceed official aid donations. These payments support families first but pass into the general economy when this money is spent. Not all the people are employed in domestic work but many of the women are. Education and information campaigns in the home countries would be helpful - to prepare people and inform them of their rights and the pitfalls in those countries where regulation is poor or nonexistent.

    As to the ideal - in many areas we are far from reaching it but this should not stop us working together towards it.

    Leni

  • TheMackenator

    11 November 2009 1:29PM

    @ leni:

    we need to do more than hope that the news of crappy working conditions filters back to Ethiopia. Myself, I doubt it would help much, and I would imagine it happens anyway. The crux is that the life they have in Lebanon is less awful than the life they have in Ethiopia, so they don't have the luxury of great options. We need to be more active - boycotts are, I think, a much under-utilised method of getting ones point across without the hassle of waiting for "the government" to step in. Use the power of the crowd.

    @ Sharpeye:

    The first word of the headlinee is "Women" so I don't think the fact that these people are largely female is being overlooked or downplayed. From that point on it is a given. But also this is about people in general. Are you suggesting that if it were men in these conditions, it would be OK?

    @ Indypops:

    I'm not sure if some illegal migrant living in some baroness's home is really comparable to someone getting shoved off a balcony.

    So, cancel your holidays to Lebanon and pour the Château Ksara down the sink. Tell your friends.

  • gymnutkamal

    11 November 2009 1:29PM

    Hmmm - this sort of abuse happens all over the 3rd world. I have certainly witnessed it myself. My mother - who is English, but living in Bangladesh - saying "don't give the servants too much - you'll spoil them!" once. Another time bemoaning the fact that she couldn't retain servants because "they all want to go get jobs in the textile mills..." - and she treated servants a whole lot better than most Bengali families, seeing to their food being adequate, making sure their kids were fed and clothed and going to school, making sure they had medical care, etc. Most are virtually slaves...

    The second quote of my mom gives a hint to how to emancipate these poor people - more economic development and therefor alternative employment. Force the well to do to do their chores themselves. When I was growing up, we had a guard at the gate, a chauffeur, a cook, two maids and a cleaning lady. But then my mom would argue that had she not emplyed them, they would be starving - and by extension their families too. Draw your own conclusions from this...

  • Zak123

    11 November 2009 1:30PM

    I recently read a breathless travel article in the Guardian online website detailing the socialising of two un-accompanied British women with a local man in Lebanon, where not for the first time; they travelled to Lebanon to indulge themselves in the local nightlife. Strangely, no mention was made of the appalling human rights abuses that are perpetrated against not only some Lebanese, but also on a more disturbing scale against migrant workers.

    Is this reluctance to criticise due to a fear of being called "Islamophobic" or some other PC label? Shying away from this horrific abuse in effect enables it to continue. The more people are aware of it, the less likely that migrants will go there and that pressure will be brought to bear on the Lebanese about this ongoing abuse.

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