Kafa campaign uncovers deep-rooted racism against MWDW in Lebanon

The campaign ‘Do Not Contradict Yourself, Think it Over’ launched recently by Kafa, enough violence and exploitation, revealed some very disturbing facts about the level of racism against migrant woman domestic worker (MWDW). The campaign showed that nearly 51% of the Lebanese people consider the domestic worker who babysits their children as ‘unreliable’; 41% accuse her of having ‘mental issues’; 36% believe that she is ‘stupid’ although she does all the house work and 27% say she is ‘not clean’ while they let her cook and clean for them. The organization based its campaign on a national study conducted in coordination with the American University of Beirut and Anti-Slavery International with the support of the International Labor Organization. The survey which targeted a group of women and men employers, studied mainly the level of knowledge in legislations regulating the employer-domestic worker relationship. In describing the purpose of the above campaign, Kafa said the following: “By pointing at inconsistencies, we are asking employers to think over their perceptions /practices and challenge the dominant prejudices related to class and racism, and challenge their misunderstanding of the current legislations. Kafa said the first phase of the campaign included the production of an awareness film which illustrated the low level of knowledge regarding the work contract. Furthermore, the study revealed the following: only 50% of the Lebanese give the helper a day off (as per the mandatory contract provisions), 24% allow her to leave the house on holidays, 40% do not give the worker her salary regularly while 94% confiscate her passport and finally 44% of employers mistakenly believe that the contract duration is 3 years, while in fact it is only one year. (An Nahar, Al Mustaqbal, February 3, 2016)