Appeal in favour of two detained MWDW unionists

A number of human rights organizations signed last Friday a petition to ‘halt the deportation of Sujana and Rosie’, two Nepalese migrant domestic workers detained since last week and without due process at the Directorate General of General Security in Beirut. The signatories of the petition are: The Anti-Racist Movement, Legal Agenda, Kafa Enough Violence and Exploitation, the National Federation of Workers and Employee Trade Unions in Lebanon, Frontiers Rights and the Regional Alliance for Women Human Rights Defenders in the MENA region. According to the petition, the two migrant workers have been staunch advocates of the rights of MWDWs in Lebanon, and have, to this effect, systematically documented and exposed abuses and violations against the rights of workers brought in through the sponsorship or Kafala system. Moreover, Sujana and Rosie are well known as unionists in the syndicate of MWDWs in the country, which could be probably the reason behind their arrest, as suggested by the above groups. It should be noted, that Sujana is threatened with deportation while the whereabouts of her colleague Rosie are still unknown. Stating that the arrested migrant workers have legal residence papers and work permits, the petition expressed concern over the speedy issuance of the arrest and deportation requests with no judicial warrant, particularly that the two MWDWs were not allowed to use their right to have a lawyer. The human rights organizations asked the General Security to freeze the deportation order to give Sujana and Rosie enough time to hire a competent attorney and receive a fair trial in line with relevant legal provisos. (Al Akhbar, December 10, 2016)