The Invisible Deaths of Lebanon’s Migrant Domestic Workers
▻http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/07/09/the-invisible-deaths-of-lebanons-migrant-domestic-workers
Last 12th June, Nahar newspaper reported that an Ethiopian maid was found dead at her employer’s house, in Koura, Lebanon, strangled with a hair tie. The news was reported in only one sentence.
Earlier in May, hundreds of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon raised their voices against the daily abuse of their rights at an annual workers’ day event, calling for better legal protection for the more than 200,000 domestic workers in Lebanon.
Migrant domestic workers generally get very little protection from the Lebanese government and remain under-reported in the media, while the deaths of these workers are rarely discussed in the news. Despite the high incidence, domestic workers’ deaths are not investigated or documented by the Lebanese authorities.
“A range of abuses are experienced by migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. These may include verbal, physical and sexual abuse, as well as poor working conditions and violations of labour rights,” Zeina Mezher, project manager at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), said.