‘I wanted to die’: Abused migrant women in Lebanon face detention
Al JazeeraBeirut, Lebanon – Sarah and Joanna sit in front of a large red suitcase filled with blankets, clothes and cans of food: all that is left of Sarah’s belongings. “It’s not hard to find out who the employers for these workers are,” Aya Majzoub, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. “I wanted to die.” Under the kafala system, domestic workers are not contemplated in Lebanon’s labour laws, which leads to frequent abuse including documented cases of beatings and sexual assault. The UN special rapporteur also warned “once domestic workers leave their employer, they lose their residency right and are considered to be ‘illegal’ migrants in the country, subject to risks of arrest and detention.” ‘We are not a prison’ After her father’s death, Sarah ran away from her sponsor’s house and went to the police, who took her to a shelter in Beirut run by the Catholic non-profit organisation Caritas. Instead, the document details Caritas’ work at General Security’s official detention centres “to help prisoners and detainees,” and secondly, “to protect victims of human trafficking”, she said.
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