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Kafala is Slavery: Migrant women domestic workers protest
25-6-2018
On the International Day for Domestic Workers, Amnesty International in collaboration with a number of civil society organizations and MWDWs in Lebanon, organized yesterday and for the 9th consecutive year, a demonstration calling for the legal protection of MWDWs and for resolving issues resulting from the ‘kafala’ sponsorship system. Hundreds of domestic workers marched from Dora to Sin el Fil carrying placards which read, ‘Kafala is Slavery’, demanding the inclusion of domestic work in the Lebanese Labor Code and the repeal of the Kafala system. A joint statement by the participating organizations advocating the rights of MWDWs, requested four main demands that protect the rights and life of domestic workers, namely: the abolition of sponsorship and its replacement by a fair arrangement; suspension of administrative detention of workers who are victims of violence and exploitation; a closer monitoring of recruitment agencies with the tightening of punishment of rights violators, and the ratification of the ILO Convention 189 to this effect. Similarly, Al Akhbar newspaper referred to a study conducted two years ago by AUB which showed that nearly 40% of Lebanese employers do not regularly pay the salaries of their domestic workers and that 94% of sponsors withhold the passports of their workers. Al Akhbar also published a letter by 8 Syrian women in Tripoli recounting the stories of two of them, where the sponsor forced them to do additional chores, including the preparation of mouneh as a condition to sustain the sponsorship. (Al Akhbar, June 25, 2018)
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- العربية
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