MWDW messages to the authorities for alleviating their plight

For the third consecutive year, the US State Department Trafficking in Persons report classified Lebanon among the worst countries with an alarming number of victims of human trafficking, while noting that Lebanon is a signatory since 2011 of the Act on the Punishment of Human Trafficking Crimes, a subject discussed last Friday, during the Second Regional Dialogue entitled "Moving Forward in Innovating Ways to Combat Human Trafficking and he Exploitation of Migrant Workers in the Middle East and North Africa," that was organized jointly by the Ministry of Justice and the International Organization for Migration. It also should be noted that the US report classifies countries based on the extent of their compliance with minimum standards of elimination of human trafficking.

In a related development, and following on the Ain Najem crime and disappointing negative reaction to it by the Labor Minister (http://bit.ly/1M2sm0I), a number of migrant women domestic workers and concerned activists, in collaboration with Kafa, forwarded three messages to selected public institutions demanding the adoption of a number of modest measures in order to improve the living situation of MWDWs in the country. A fourth message will be dispatched later to Minister Azzi carrying a special request to recognize the newly formed MWDW trade union. The first message of the three messages was sent to the General Director of the General Security asking for a grace period upon the termination of their contracts and the right for domestic workers to change their employers. The second one was addressed to Reymond Bashur, head of the National Notary Council demanding the provision of a unified work contract in the language of the domestic worker, noting that generally the contract signed by the worker in her country of origin is different from the one she signs in Lebanon. The third and last message was addressed to the Director General of the Security Forces, requesting serious investigation into workers’ death (and suicide) cases. (Al-Akhbar 9 Dec, L’Orient le Jour 5 Dec, 2015)