8 NGOs Urge Government to End Rampant Abuse of Domestic Workers

Lebanese authorities should address high levels of abuse and deaths among migrant domestic workers, a group of eight concerned civil society groups said Friday.

The non-governmental organizations said the Lebanese government should also act quickly to reform restrictive visa regulations and adopt a labor law on domestic work.

The eight groups are Human Rights Watch, Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center, KAFA (enough) Violence & Exploitation, Anti Racism Movement, Amel Association International, Insan, Danish Refugee Council, and Nasawiya.

They called on the government to announce publicly the outcome of the investigation into the recent abuse and subsequent suicide of Ethiopian domestic worker Alem Dechasa, 33.

The mother of two was admitted to De la Croix psychiatric hospital, known as Deir al-Salib, on Feb. 25, but later hanged herself using her bed sheets.

Her case became public after LBC TV obtained mobile phone footage of a man hitting the woman and pulling her hair under the gaze of bystanders outside the Ethiopian general consulate in Beirut.

“Alem Dechasa-Desisa’s death is an outrage on two levels – the violent treatment she endured and the absence of safeguards that could have prevented this tragedy,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

“The government should adopt long overdue protections to end rampant abuses against domestic workers and bring down their death toll in the country.”

“The Lebanese authorities only opened an investigation because they found themselves in the media spotlight,” said Houry. “The government urgently needs to address the root causes that are driving so many migrant domestic workers to despair.”

In 2008, Human Rights Watch documented deaths of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon and found that there had been an average of one death a week from unnatural causes, including suicide and falls from tall buildings.

Many of the estimated 200,000 foreign domestic workers in Lebanon hail from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Ethiopia.

The most common complaints documented by the embassies of labor-sending countries and civil society groups include mistreatment by recruiters, non-payment or delayed payment of wages, forced confinement to the workplace, a refusal to provide any time off for the worker, forced labor, and verbal and physical abuse.