Your home could be someone else's prison

Opinion piece by Sarah Yehya, Staff Writer

May 12th, 2020

On November 5th 2019, 7 bodies were on a flight from Lebanon to Addis Ababa.

Who are we paying respect to? Families of migrant workers whose bodies lied victim to a failed labor system.

A system with a death toll of 2 bodies a week (mostly from suicide). A system that is independent of the General Labor Law which is applied for all workers on Lebanese grounds, excluding them. A system that exploits their working conditions and neglects their most basic rights. A system that disregards Lebanon’s role in the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, because a new shade of skin color or a passport from a ‘developing country’ came into view.

This system known as the “Kafala System”.

What is the Kafala Sysytem?

Kafala System is the labor law by which an estimated 250,000 migrant domestic workers live by, in Lebanon.  It states that the employer – or “kafeel” – has relatively full control over the employee’s life. Blackmail, holding back their passports, and refusing to pay money are but a fraction of the atrocities these workers will inevitably encounter. 

Most of their working conditions are of poor nature: Sundays are not off, they barely have any contact with family members or the outside world, and they work hours on end. Abuse – which is a prominent concern among these workers – leaves no option but for them to quit; however, the Kafala system places that option within the hands of the employer (which are the abuser in most cases). 

What happens if they want to run away? They will find themselves vulnerable to jail time, being penalized with a fine, and considered “illegal”. 

Exploiting migrant domestic workers is too common, and is a societal, cultural, legal, and political concern that should be tackled from the roots of the matter. Human rights are called “human” rights for a reason, treating domestic workers as anything less does not disregard them from that title.  Isn’t it ironic how “Kafa” and “Kafala” start with the same four letters but differ once the word “migrant” comes into place.