'End Neo-slavery': Lebanon Maid Abandonment Sparks Outrage

'End neo-slavery': Lebanon maid abandonment sparks outrage

After preparing dozens of rice packages for out-of-work domestic staff, 30-year-old Tirsit breaks down in tears recounting life as a foreign housekeeper in crisis-hit Lebanon

Beirut, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jun, 2020 ) :After preparing dozens of rice packages for out-of-work domestic staff, 30-year-old Tirsit breaks down in tears recounting life as a foreign housekeeper in crisis-hit Lebanon.

"The (recruitment) agencies sell us," said the 30-year-old Ethiopian, a large sack heaped with bags of rice by her side.

"If I come to work for (a woman) and I don't like it, or she hits me, or there is no food, if I want to change households or leave, I can't," she explained.

"She says: 'I bought you. Pay me back $2,000 then go wherever you want.'" Around 250,000 migrants -- usually women -- work as housekeepers, nannies and carers in Lebanese homes, a large proportion Ethiopian and some for as little as $150 a month.

None are protected by the labour law.

Instead, they work under a sponsorship system called kafala that has repeatedly been condemned by human rights groups as abusive and racist.

As the Black Lives Matter movement trends worldwide, activists in Lebanon are saying abolishing kafala is long overdue.

"Something really needs to change," said Tirsit, after seeing persistent mistreatment of fellow workers during her 12 years in Lebanon.

Under kafala, an employer pays around $2,000 to $5,000 to a recruitment agency to find a helper, with prices varying according to nationality, then sponsors the worker to stay legally in the country.

The live-in employee cannot resign without their permission, or she becomes undocumented. Nothing prohibits an employer from confiscating the worker's passport.

This leaves the worker entirely at the mercy of their employer.