The COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis have had a devastating impact on migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, many of whom have lost jobs or had to rely on vastly decreased wages and deteriorating working conditions. There are, according to Ministry of Labour data, at least 75,000 Ethiopian women domestic workers in Lebanon, though many times this number are thought to be in irregular status. Despite the ongoing conflict in their country of origin many such workers wish to return home, but are prevented from doing so if they are charged with absconding or face (false) theft accusations by their employer - either in retaliation at the workers’ wish to depart, or sometimes to evade the employer’s responsibility to pay the workers owed wages or a ticket home.

As documented in the ILO and Legal Agenda report The Labyrinth of justice: Migrant domestic workers before Lebanon’s courts, the kafala sponsorship system, combined with an opaque and complex legal system in Lebanon, makes it extremely challenging for migrant workers to contest absconding charges and false theft accusations without pro-bono legal support, leaving many trapped in detention in Lebanon.

Egna Legna Besidet is a non-religious, non-political, community-based organization of Ethiopian feminist activists working on migrant domestic workers’ issues in Lebanon and Ethiopia. Many of its members are themselves former domestic workers who now support their community including through vocational classes and workshops, financial assistance, shelter provision, legal services and awareness-raising.

In December 2020, Egna Legna Besidet started a partnership with the FAIRWAY Programme to support African migrant domestic workers with legal aid. Through a lawyer and two paralegal case workers, Egna Legna has completed more than 51 legal cases (theft and/or absconding) and 155 cases where administrative support was required (for example, to issue an emergency passport). In total, more than 79 migrant women have been able to be repatriated as a result of the legal assistance, of which 64 were imprisoned. At least 28 others still have pending cases before the Criminal Court.  

Many of Egna Legna’s clients escaped the household where they worked as a result of systematic physical and sexual violence, non-payment of wages or being trapped in the home. ILO research in 2016 showed that nearly a quarter of employers self-reported sometimes or always locking a domestic worker in the home, among other breaches of the standard unified contract between domestic workers and employers.

Once a worker has left the household, she is commonly reported as ‘absconded’ and subject to arrest. In such cases, Egna Legna’s interviews with workers indicated that most police officers do not inform them of their rights to remain silent, to contact a lawyer or inform friends or family about their arrest, and do not provide an interpreter. These practices can severely endanger the women, who are at times coerced into signing documents in Arabic. Many of Egna Legna’s clients were subject to false accusations of theft and faced extensive periods of pre-trial detention in prison.

“Despite everything they have suffered, it is very difficult to encourage our clients to seek justice, especially since many were already trapped in Lebanon for years due to legal issues and are just eager to have the absconding or theft charges lifted and leave,” said Francisca Ankrah, Projects and Development Officer. “Lengthy processing periods resulting from fuel shortages, electricity cuts, and lawyer strikes have caused increased anxiety among our clients, and have spread thin the resources we have dedicated for returnees in waiting”.

In September 2020, former Minister of Labour Lamia Yammine issued a revised Standard Unified Contract based on a reform action plan and a draft contract developed by the ILO and key national stakeholders, and which addressed many of the key elements of the kafala system that can lead to forced labour. The contract stipulated clearly that domestic workers had the right to terminate their contract and leave the household without the permission of the employer. The revised Standard Unified Contract was however indefinitely suspended in October 2020 by the Shura Council, Lebanon’s highest administrative court, based on a complaint from the Syndicate of Private Recruitment Agencies.

The kafala system comprises a suite of laws, policies, practices, and customs that characterize the governance and accommodation of the migrant workforce. It creates a heavily unbalanced employer-migrant worker relationship that impedes migrant workers’ freedom of movement and their right to terminate employment or change employers, among other negative practices, thus putting them at risk of forced labour.