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Foreign Maids ... now free, but trapped
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Coronavirus has accelerated Lebanon's economic collapse, and foreign maids are paying the price
On a street corner in the Lebanese city of Beirut, cars keep pulling up. Women and girls get out with their bags before the driver takes off.
Key points:
- There are 250,000 registered foreign workers in Lebanon
- Maids have been abandoned by their employers due to the country's economic crisis
- Due to coronavirus travel restrictions, they say they cannot get home
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^ Hawa, who started working as a domestic servant at 13, says she was beaten repeatedly by her employer.(ABC News: Cherine Yazbeck)
They are foreign maids, mostly from Ethiopia, being abandoned by the families for whom they worked. Most have no money, no passport, no accommodation, and no way of getting home.
The system which can turn maids into 'slaves'
Most domestic workers in Lebanon are employed under a sponsorship system known as kafala, which binds them to a particular employer.
"The kafala system allows you to completely control the worker and the freedom and the life of the worker, which turns the workers into slaves," Farah Salka, the director of Lebanon's Anti-Racism Movement, said.
"It allows for rampant abuse and violence and a lot of misconduct to happen in the houses without anybody being in check."
The kafala system had a poor reputation before the financial crisis.
Coronavirus has accelerated Lebanon'''s economic collapse, and foreign maids are paying the price - ABC News
