Economic, sexual exploitation despite Lebanese law to combat human trafficking

The Legal Agenda hosted a seminar yesterday entitled  ‘Sexual and economic exploitation before the Judiciary: Between present and past’. The seminar presented a study which tackled 34 cases of trafficking in persons at the Criminal Court of Beirut between the years 2016 and 2017, while noting that none of the victims concerned have received compensation. To recall that human trafficking is considered a crime punishable by virtue of the Anti-Trafficking Law passed back in 2011. The study classified the cases into three categories: child beggars, prostitution and abuse of migrant women domestic workers, revealing the marginalization and exclusion of groups who while being victims of all forms of abuse, yet they are not taken into consideration in the current legislation. These include in particular, migrant workers, foreign sex workers in nightclubs and forced child labor in agriculture. Concerning the cases of MWDWs, lawyer Nizar Saghieh said were treated as inactive cases of exploitation, pointing to 197 trials for 197 MWDWs, of whom only 16 workers attended the hearings, 91% were absent during the pronouncement of the rulings, two workers were assigned with a power of attorney and a translator and five faced their employer. Saghieh explained that, often, the court case which initially is presented as a case of exploitation turned into an inquiry into the legitimacy of the foreign worker’s residency.  The study can be found on the following link: https://goo.gl/J4Uq1J. (Al Akhbar, August 1, 2018)

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