Report cites psychological disorder as leading cause of violence against maids (3 articles in English and Arabic)

The following are 3 articles published today on yesterday's report launching on migrant domestic workers.

Domestic worker abuse linked to mental issues
EU-funded report cites psychological disorder as leading cause of violence against maids
By Simona Sikimic, Daily Star staff, Thursday, March 31, 2011

BEIRUT: Psychological problems of employers are a leading cause of violence or abuse perpetrated against domestic workers in Lebanon, according to an European Union-funded report published Wednesday.

While existing social prejudice and legal loopholes allow for such behavior, the personal mental problems of the “madame” are also responsible, said “An Exploratory Study of Psychoanalytic and Social Factors in the Abuse of Migrant Domestic Workers by Female Employers in Lebanon.”

Mistreatment in childhood and childhood trauma, self-loathing, paranoia, gender identity issues and obsessive-compulsive disorders are among the issue

The Daily Star Editorial: Stop the Slavery in Lebanon

Stop the slavery in Lebanon
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&article_id=116000&categ_id=17
Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The US State Department issued on Monday its annual Trafficking in Persons report, and the horrifying litany of abuses catalogued from Lebanon and throughout this region should be more than enough to push our legislators to finally enact a law against trafficking.

Yes, that’s right – Lebanon does not even have on the books the most basic legislation against trade in human beings. A draft amendment to the labor laws is waiting and waiting in Parliament, and we call without reservation on lawmakers to pass this bill as soon as possible.

That glaring absence of rudimentary legislation served as one of the failures that dumped Lebanon into second-tier status in the trafficking report, and Qatar also finished in that ignominious category, as far as other Arab states are concerned. Should the circumstances here further worsen, we could yet find ourselves in the third and lowest tier of countries – nations which are not even making significant efforts to combat human trafficking. Unfortunately, we would find there a number of our regional brethren: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sudan and Iran all lack laws against trafficking and any marked moves to address the problem.

In Lebanon, the violations of human rights through trafficking take a variety of forms. For instance,

Report: Migrant domestic workers continued to be maltreated in 2009

Findings of the 2009 progress report on the European Neighborhood Policy, an initiative by the Delegation of the European Union aimed at promoting reform in Lebanon, concluded that there was “a lack of progress” across a range of pressing issues. (The Daily Star)

These issues include foreign maids. The report said that migrant domestic workers continued to be maltreated in 2009. The exact wording of the report which can be found here is:

In January 2009 a decree for the regulation of employment agencies that bring women migrant domestic workers to Lebanon was adopted. A Unified Contract for Migrant Domestic Workers was prepared in February 2009. However, enforcement remains critically weak as cases of exploitation, mistreatment and high rates of unnatural fatalities among women domestic migrant workers continue to be reported.

Human Rights Watch issues report on the Protection of Migrant Domestic Workers in Asia and the Middle East

Migrant domestic workers remain vulnerable to exploitation in spite of growing efforts by Arab and Asian governments to afford them protection, a rights watchdog has said.

In the report, “Slow Reform: Protection of Migrant Domestic Workers in Asia and the Middle East,” released on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged governments to do away with restrictive sponsorship policies and to take increased measures against abusive employers.

The 25-page report looks at recent reforms and shortcomings in Lebanon, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Malaysia. It said that although all the countries had taken some steps towards protecting migrants, tangible progress was sluggish.

“Several governments have made concrete improvements for migrant domestic workers in the past five years, but in general, reforms have been slow, incremental, and hard-fought,” said Nisha Varia, women’s rights researcher at HRW and chief author of the report. “Millions of Asian and African women workers remain at high risk of exploitation and violence, with little hope of redress,” the report added.

Download full report
Read the HRW press release
Webpage of the report
Arabic coverage of the report

«هيومن رايتس» تعدد المخالفات بحق عاملات المنازل وتدعو لإصلاحها

من جريدة السفيرتاريخ 29/04/2010

أعلنت منظمة «هيومن رايتس ووتش»، في تقرير أصدرته أمس لمناسبة عيد العمال، أن الإصلاحات التي أجرتها حكومات الشرق الأوسط وآسيا لصالح عاملات المنازل المهاجرات، لا توفر الحد الأدنى من تدابير الحماية اللازمة، للتصدي للإساءات المرتكبة بحقهن. وقالت إنه بالرغم من التحسن في الأوضاع مؤخراً، فإن الملايين من النساء الآسيويات والأفريقيات ما زلن عرضة لخطر الاستغلال والعنف، في ظل أمل ضعيف في الإنصاف أو التعويض.
وتضمن التقرير الذي تألف من 26 صفحة، مراجعة أوضاع ثماني دول فيها أعداد كبيرة من عاملات المنازل المهاجرات، هي: لبنان والأردن والسعودية والكويت والإمارات والبحرين وسنغافورة وماليزيا.

Study: Women Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon (2002)

A Study by Dr. Ray Jureidini on Women Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon (2002) published on the International Labor Organization websitel

WWW.ilo.org/public/english/protection/migrant/download/imp/imp48e.pdf