Exploitation of maids in Lebanon
LEBANON: Lucky to be Just 'Ugly' and Slapped
By Mona Alami
BEIRUT, Oct 14 (IPS) - "My maid is extremely ugly, I can't fight the urge to slap her when I see her early in the morning," boasts a Lebanese trader from Ain Anoub village just outside Beirut. He laughs.
It gets worse. A recent report by Human Rights Watch disclosed that at least 95 migrant domestic workers have died in Lebanon since January 2007. About 40 of the cases were classified suicides. And 24 were described as workers falling from high-rise buildings, often in an attempt to escape their employers.
Having Sri Lankan, Philippine and Ethiopian workers at home is a matter of social status in Lebanon, and very much the norm. Most earn less than the 300 dollars monthly minimum wage.
A 2006 survey of 600 domestic workers in Lebanon by Dr Ray Jureidini from the American University in Cairo reported by Human Rights Watch found that 52 percent of domestic workers were verbally abused. More than 55 percent of the workers interviewed worked more than 12 hours a day, with more than 21 percent working more than 15 hours a day.
The study showed that 34 percent of respondents did not have regular time off; 42 percent had one day off a week; 4 percent had time off every two weeks, and 2 percent once every four weeks. Many were not allowed a minimum degree of privacy, with 9 percent sleeping in the household salon and 6 percent in the kitchen.
"While one of the less frequent violations is employers not providing housekeepers with a space of their own, the most common is retaining their wages or delaying salary payment, followed by forced confinement," says Nadim Houry, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
In one reported incident of abuse in May this year a couple living in Koreytem - one of the capital's most affluent neighbourhoods and the scene of intense fighting - locked their housemaid in their apartment with only a few days' supply of food while they fled to safety.
Karunawati Welagader, a Sri Lankan domestic worker, says her sister, employed in the household of a government official, was constantly on the verge of depression until she returned to her home country. She was locked up and not allowed to make phone calls.
"My sister's case is not unusual in a country like Lebanon; her living conditions were probably much better than other workers, who besides being locked in are often not fed or clothed properly."
Lebanese children with Asian maids are a common sight in Beirut at restaurants, classy beach resorts or on way to school. Lebanese women seem to trust domestic workers when it comes to their children, but not when it comes to property. This may explain why the passports of an estimated 85 percent foreign workers have been confiscated by their employers. They are held to prevent a housekeeper stealing and running away. Houry says physical abuse is another violation, though less frequent, and one that sometimes leads to molestation and rape. The study found that the female employer hit her domestic helper in 61 percent of cases, followed by the male employer (23 percent) and children (11 percent).
In the Jureidini study 14 percent of respondents admitted to being abused. About 7 percent declared they had been sexually harassed. "This figure might, however, be higher as many cases go unreported," says Houry. In 64 percent of the cases it was the male employer who harassed his hired help, and in 21 percent, the son.
In Verdun, another rich Beirut neighbourhood, a teenager at one of the foreign schools jokes about his friend prostituting his parents' Sri Lankan housekeeper. "My friend offers his maid's services for a given price. Most of his friends have had a sexual experience with the housekeeper at one time or another when the parents were out."
Foreign domestic workers in Lebanon have almost no protection. Under Lebanese law, foreign domestic workers are not entitled to minimum wage, and are excluded from labour laws and regulation. "Domestic workers are dying in Lebanon at a rate of more than one per week," says Houry. (END/2008)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44257
Few other stories
http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&2A6D7C2...
http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/0/C91557B0ABB1D147C225754...
So you're the exception Alexa, not the rule.
I fail to see how having a maid is ever anything other than a luxury, unless you have some sort of disability preventing you from caring for yourself (or others).
It might be generalizing, but still we're all gaining from the exploitation of these men and women. Even if you are paying them a decent wage, it's still not as much as you would pay someone in your home country, and, yes they prefer to work for you, because you don't beat them, but that doesn't change the fact that you get your pick because they're running away from the people who do beat them.
You're right Alexa, I was generalizing.
But the point I was trying to make was that we take a universally dismissive view of companies that employ labourers and pay them a low wage. Very few people try to argue the merits of that situation.
However the minute we start talking about maids... totally different situation, as though there are no parallels.
Maybe it’s only exploitation when big bad construction companies hire workers and pay them pitiful wages to work as labourers.
But when people need someone to do their washing and clean their toilet while paying them the same wage as a labourer (or less) then it’s fair and a necessity.
Yup here's it's not a luxury, it's simple unadulterated exploitation.
Maids are a luxury.
The price for maids is kept low because Arabs who can't afford them get upset when governments try to raise the minimum salary for domestic help.
http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Society/10194832.html
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/1yr_arc_Articles.asp?Article=166058&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=29287&date=1-1-2007
Get over yourselves and do your own housework you lazy people and stop exploiting the poor.
Human rights!!!! wow
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Listen to Many..Speak to a few.
-i agree with expat bnota
It is not a luxury. Did you wonder where and with whom I'll leave my baby when I go to work?????
The average price of a nursery is around 2500 reals. This is a luxury I cannot afford.
Why you presume everybody is bad. She needs the job and I need her. Nothing more than that deedee
"dgoodrebel will always be the rebellious good one"
In most place's they're a luxury and they are treated as such, but not here where they are treated like an object, an accessory, or worse then your latest cell phone.
A maid is not an acessory, but neither is it a "need". it is a pure luxury.
A maid is not an accesory, it;s a need in some cases where you have no family to help you.
I have one and I am sure if you 'd ask her she is very happy living with me. She takes care of my little girl and sometimes does some stuff for me, but I do not deny her any of her rights. She has a good sallary and she has all the rights of any employee + some benefits. Not all the middle east is the same, but I heard myself of some not very fortunate cases.
I think there is a God watching us and I also believe that we pay our debts here on earth...
A maid is not an accesory, it;s a need in some cases where you have no family to help you.
I have one and I am sure if you 'd ask her she is very happy living with me. She takes care of my little girl and sometimes does some stuff for me, but I do not deny her any of her rights. She has a good sallary and she has all the rights of any employee + some benefits. Not all the middle east is the same, but I heard myself of some not very fortunate cases.
I think there is a God watching us and I also believe that we pay our debts here on earth...
poor maids.. ( )
maids can go and complain whether they have their passports or not. if they have their passports however they're embassies can help them more. if they complain to the police then as long as the person they're complaining about doesn't have any powerful ties they should be ok. some employers ask for the passport so that the maid can't rob them and leave which happens sometimes. the maid should never agree to that because it compromises her position greatly.
mistreating maids has always been reprimanded in the more educated social circles in lebanon. unfortunately, ignorant people also get maids...and give us all this crappy reputation. all you can do is treat your maid in the most fitting manner and hope others do the same i guess.
How people here tend to stereotype workers based upon their nationality (Filipinas are clean and make good hairdressers, Indians and Sri Lankans are good cooks, etc.)?
I have heard workers here stereotype employers the same way. Egyptians do this, Lebanese do that, Qataris are this way...
I know several who, having had one bad experience, will refuse to work for a certain nationality of employer because they had such a bad experience with them before.
And with stories like the ones above, who can blame them? No wonder they usually want to work for Europeans and Westerners instead of Arabs. We don't have a habit of (or reputation for) locking up our household help, beating them, or throwing them off balconies.
there is no sponsorship system in lebanon, maids are allowed to move freely. they should not accept working for someone who will at any point confiscate their passport so as to always assure a way out. agreeing to part with your passport is not at all a wise choice.
Its not just a problem in lebanon, seems all across the middle east, Dubai has many well documented cases, maids getting throw off buildings, raped by their employer etc.
.to be exact:
-maids, driver, luxurious car mostly m. benz
.
.
Agreed Gypsy
Maids, the fashion accessory every Arab must have.
i know some Lebanese here who pay slave wages, and it's terrible considering how much they make.
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"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day." Withnail & I
Doesn't suprise me in the least......Especially the comment of the man at the beginning!