Dreams for Sale: journey of exploitation of migrant domestic workers

The study tackled the mechanisms and practices for recruiting workers from Nepal and Bangladesh and their subsequent employment in Lebanon, noting that migrant workers were duped in what concerns their conditions of work and their lives in Lebanon or were not given important information or were provided by false information by the middlemen.  The study exposed forced work subjected to migrant workers who are denied rest and weekends and whose papers were confiscated.  Other practices include forbidding them from going out alone, forcing them not to leave home, forbidding them from calling their families as well as subjecting them to physical and sexual violence.The study notes that the sponsorship (kafala) system creates unjust relations of power amongst employers and employees.  This system has prevented workers from changing their work and employers and henceforth fleeing becomes the only way to terminate a poor work relation.
The study concludes with recommendations which would contribute to changing the mechanisms of recruitment as well as limiting exploitation of migrant workers.  These include strengthening the role of the state, exchanging bilateral agreements between Lebanon and countries of origin, strengthening control of employment agencies and limiting corruption, providing incoming migrant workers with sufficient and accurate information and holding accountable those who violate the rights of migrant workers.