نشل عاملة إثيوبية

تعرضت العاملة الإثيوبية سيركالين ج. (30 عاماً) للنشل في شارع بلس في الحمراء. فقد أقدم مجهولان يستقلان دراجة نارية على سلب محفظة سيركالين وفي داخلها 500 دولار وأوراق خاصة. فر السالبان إلى جهة مجهولة.

جريدة الأخبار، عدد الثلاثاء ١٣ تموز ٢٠١٠

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/197558

Lebanon supports the new convention to protect domestic workers

According to an email brief I received from Christian Aid, Lebanon has supported the new convention to protect domestic workers at the recent annual International Labour Conference, where ILO members agreed on a new Convention which will outline rights and protections for domestic workers.

For more information:

Christian Aid: New convention to protect abused workers

Moves Welcomed to Protect Rights of Exploited Domestic Workers

According to Christian Aid, the next steps for this area of work include working with partners to:

• ensure that the detail of the ILO Convention reflects the needs of domestic workers as far as possible;
• build wider and deeper support for the ILO Convention, particularly in the Middle East;
• hold governments accountable for acting on positive positions taken in the ILO process by improving national laws and practice to match these benchmarks;
• build support for the Convention and its ratification by countries in the Middle East;
• deepen the participation and organisation of domestic workers’ groups in the ILO process, other international fora, and in national contexts;
• highlight the value of domestic work and the poor conditions of many domestic workers in the Middle East;
• support our UK partners in calling for the UK government to support a substantive Convention to further the rights of domestic workers internationally.

Wear your “Yes Madam” t-shirt today!

As part of their anti-racism movement campaign, IndyACT has produced a line of t-shirts entitled “End Modern Day Slavery” with front images and text including:

• Migrant Domestic Workers are dying at a rate of ONE per week
• “Yes Madame” employment agency. Sri Lankan, Ethiopian, Nepalese, Filipina.
• My Sri Lankan is Ethiopian, your Sri Lankan is from where?

The “Yes Madame” employment agency is a REAL agency located at Hamra. The “My Sri Lankan is…” is a pejorative expression often repeated by some Lebanese whereby they refer to any migrant worker as an automatic “Sri Lankan”, regardless of nationality. The word is used as a noun depicting “maids” instead of an adjective depicting nationality.

T-shirts available in 3 sizes, and cost 10 USD as a contribution to IndyACT’s campaign in support of migrant domestic workers. To order the t-shirts, email Comms at indyact dot org
IndyACT offices located in Gemayzeh, Beirut.

Dark skinned girl, presumably Ethiopian, attacked

Al-Akhbar newspaper also reported today that a dark skinned girl, presumed to be Ethiopian, was found injured and bruised all over her body, thrown on the ground in an area of Sa'adeneyl (Bekaa), and suffering from a dog bite. She was transferred to hospital.

اعتداء على فتاة إثيوبية؟

عُثر على فتاة من ذوي البشرة السوداء مرمية أرضاً في منطقة سعدنايل، ويُعتقد أنّها إثيوبية وهي مصابة بجروح ورضوض في أنحاء جسمها وبعضّة كلب في رجلها. وقد نُقلت إلى أحد المستشفيات حيث خضعت للعلاج. 

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/196786

Nepalese maid dies, strangulated?

Al-Akhbar newspaper reported today that a Nepalese migrant domestic workers, Shanta Baribar (or Paripar) was found dead, hanging from an electrical wire (or strangulated with an electrical wire; the word used by Al-Akbar can mean hanging or strangulated) in Ballouneh inside the house of Joseph A. where she works. Reasons and circumstances of death are unknown. Al-Akhbar does not use the word "suicide".

وفاة عاملة نيباليّة شنقاً

عُثر على العاملة النيبالية شانتا باريبار مشنوقة بواسطة سلك كهربائي في منطقة بلونة داخل منزل جوزف أ. حيث تعمل، ولم تُعرف الأسباب. 

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/196786

Asharq Al Awsat: "Lebanon: Nobody's There…Don't Call"

Lebanon: Nobody's There…Don't Call, 28/06/2010,  by Hussein Shobokshi
Full article: http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=21451

Quote:

Lebanon is indeed a country of wonders! However complains of migrant workers being mistreated is not something limited to the Lebanese, but also Ethiopians, other African countries, Sri Lankans, Egyptians, and Syrians, have also faced similar accusations. So of course the Lebanese are not the only ones who have contrived to treat others badly, this is a defect that different Middle Eastern countries share, and is something that reflects an imbalance between regimes and laws that need to be activated and applied on the ground. However the Lebanese case remains interesting due to the fragility and vulnerability of Lebanese society. I do not know the future of the Lebanese service and tourist industries (which the Lebanese are extremely proud of today) if the third world migrant workers abandon it! These workers are employed in offices, kitchens, gas stations, storehouses, warehouses, garages, and other fields that the Lebanese no longer consent to work in. This is something that would result in these industries declining, or perhaps even being destroyed

The Sudanese workers crisis, and the Lebanese government's mishandling of this, is unacceptable for a country that has always boasted of its liberties and civil rights. I wonder if these migrant workers would have received the same treatment if they were from France, Canada, or Italy? Therefore, this is my advice to the Sudanese brothers; change your nationality in Lebanon to Ukrainian, and you will see the difference.

صوت النسوة: شكراً بطرس حرب، بس ما فهمنا

كتبت ربيكا صعب سعادة في "صوت النسوة" مقال بالعربية "اللبنانية" عن بعض حلول وزارة العمل لوضع الخادمات الأجانب في لبنان وعن العنصرية اللبنانية بعنوان شكراً بطرس حرب، بس ما فهمنا. ما يلي هو مقتطفات من المقال

لمّا نحكي بحقوق الإنسان والقانون، ما في شي إسمه “الشعب الفلاني لطيف”. كل الشعوب فيها الخير وأغلبية العالم عندها القدرة تكون لطيفة أو مش لطيفة وفقاً للظروف. بالنهاية الشعب الألماني إيام النازية كانت بأغلبيته “لطيف”، والشعب الإسرائيلي أنا أكيدة إنّو لطيف. بس لمّا القانون يعنّف فئات معيّنة ، الناس اللطيفة ما عندا مشكل تتصرّف متل الكواسر، هيدي ميزة إنسانية جداً ومشان هيك نحنا منشتغل للحصول على قوانين لطيفة وغير ظالمة وما منتّكل على نخوة الناس اللطيفة. مقارنة أو ربط حماية العاملات الأجنبيات بحماية أرباب العمل مقارنة مهينة وخطيرة. تعدّيات عاملات المنازل هنّي حالات فردية ومعزولة بالوقت اللّي حالات الإستغلال اللّي بتوقع العاملات ضحيتها هنّي مشكلة إجتماعية مستشرية ناتجة عن العنف القانوني الممارس من الدولة اللبنانية بحق العاملات لجعلن الحلقة الأضعف بالمجتمع اللبناني وبالتالي فشة خلق كل أفراد المجتمع. شو الفرق؟ الفرق إنّو إذا عاملة أجنبية بتشتغل بمنزل حدا ارتكبت أي خطأ، لو شو ما كان، بيقدر صاحب العمل، يأنبها، يضربها، يطردها، يتهمها بالسرقة، الخ. إذا انقلبت الآية وصاحب العمل أخطأ، شو بيطلع بإيد العاملة؟ ولا شي، ليش؟ لأنّو صاحب الشغل هوي بنفس الوقت رب العمل، والكفيل، باسبورها بإيده وهوي الرجل اللبناني…

http://www.sawtalniswa.com/2010/07/boutros-harb/comment-page-1/

Harb stresses need to modernize labor laws

By The Daily Star - Wednesday, June 16, 2010

BEIRUT: Labor Minister Boutros Harb stressed the need to modernize labor laws, during the 99th International Labor Conference in Geneva on Tuesday. Harb presided over the Lebanese delegation at the conference and gave a speech, in which he confirmed Lebanon’s need to modernize its labor laws and announced he signed a draft for a new labor law last week. “The new law will be in accordance with agreements and treaties Lebanon signed with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Arab Labor Organization,” he said. Harb explained that the draft law tackled issues such as child labor, gender discrimination, rights of the disabled, safety measures at work, health services, limiting work hours, fair wages, indemnities, and domestic workers.

إدانة لبنانية لضربها مخدومتها

English version

جريدة السفير، 26 حزيران 2010

أصدر القاضي جان طنوس المكلف الدعاوى الجزائية في مدينة جبيل (شمال بيروت)، حكما بحبس ربة منزل ج.س (1969) لمدة شهر وتغريمها مبلغ عشرة ملايين ليرة لبنانية، لمصلحة عاملتها السريلانكية «سامانتي وارناكولا سورييا» (مواليد 1983)، بعدما أدانها بتهمة ضرب الخادمة. كما حكم طنوس «بمنع المدعى عليها من الدخول طرفا في عقد عامل أو عاملة في الخدمة المنزلية بصفة رب عمل أو كفيل لمدة خمس سنوات». وأوضح أن سامانتي تعرضت للضرب وسوء المعاملة خلال فترة عملها لدى المدعى عليها بين كانون الأول 2004 وأيار2007، إضافة إلى منعها من الخروج من المنزل، مما دفع العاملة إلى اللجوء إلى سفارة بلادها، التي أرسلتها إلى جمعية كاريتاس الخيرية حيث عاينها طبيب شرعي واتضح أنها «مصابة بخدوش وجروح وكدمات ورضوض في كل أنحاء جسمها، منها ما هو حديث، ومنها ما يعود إلى أشهر عدة».
(أ. ف. ب)

Lebanese housewife jailed for abusing maid

BEIRUT — A Lebanese woman was sentenced to one month in jail for mistreating her Sri Lankan housemaid, court papers showed on Friday, a rare happening in a country where rights groups regularly denounce the ill-treatment of foreign domestic helpers.
The 41-year-old housewife was sentenced to jail and fined 6,600 dollars for "having struck" and "seriously mistreated" her home helper in the northern city of Byblos, according to court records seen by AFP.
She was also banned from employing domestic staff for up to five years.
The victim suffered blows and

خالد صاغية: حادث فردي

جريدة الأخبار - عدد الجمعة ٢٥ حزيران ٢٠١٠

حادث فردي

خالد صاغية

تتكاثر الأحداث الفرديّة في لبنان. تتكاثر لدرجة أنّه إذا جُمع عددُ الأفراد المسؤولين عن هذه الأحداث الفردية، فسنحصل على مجموع يفوق عدد أفراد الشعب اللبناني.
فإن رمت عاملة سريلانكية نفسها من الشرفة، تكون الحادثة فردية. وإن وُجد عامل سوريّ مطعوناً، تكون الحادثة فرديّة. وإن عُلِّقت لافتة تعلن تقديم مريول مجاني مع كل «خادمة» جديدة، عُدّ ذلك خطأً فردياً...
آخر تلك الحوادث الفردية حصل في منطقة الأوزاعي. القصّة باتت معروفة. دهمت قوّة من الأمن العام صالة يقيم فيها مواطنون سودانيّون حفلاً خيرياً، فتحوّل الحفل إلى كرنفال امتزجت فيه الفحولة بالعنصريّة.
الحادثة، على فظاعتها، كان يمكنها أن تمرّ مرور الكرام. لكنّ تحرّك الشعب السوداني داخل بلاده تضامناً مع مواطنيه، وتضافُر أسباب سياسية واقتصادية، وضعا الحكومة اللبنانية وأطرافاً سياسية عديدة في وضع المجبَر على إدانة الحادثة. ونقول «المجبَر» لأنّ هذه الأطراف عينها لم تحرّك ساكناً لممارسات مشابهة كثيرة.
وزير الخارجية علي الشامي رأى أن الحادثة «فردية». السفير السوداني في لبنان إدريس سليمان أراد بدوره أن يكون مهذّباً، فساير المسؤولين اللبنانيين، ورأى أنّ «الحادثة فردية ولا يمكن أن تعبّر عن حقيقة المشاعر التي يكنّها اللبنانيون تجاه إخوانهم السودانيّين».
لكنّ الجميع يعرفون أنّ الحقيقة في مكان آخر، وأنّ الحادثة ليست فرديّة مع الأسف، وهي تعكس حقيقة المشاعر التي يكنّها لبنانيّون تجاه إخوانهم السودانيّين. العناصر الذين كلّفوا تنفيذ المهمّة مسؤولون طبعاً عن عملهم المشين. لكنّ هؤلاء العناصر والمسؤولين عنهم عكسوا ثقافة المؤسسات الأمنية في هذه البلاد، لا بل عكسوا الثقافة السائدة في المجتمع ككلّ. فبعيداً من تبادل اللياقات الاجتماعية، وبعيداً ممّا نُقل عن رئيس الحكومة سعد الحريري بعد جلسة مجلس الوزراء الأخيرة، يعرف الجميع أنّنا نعيش في بلاد يرتفع فيها «دوز» العنصريّة في ظلّ إصرار عنيد على عدم وضع أيّ قانون يجرّمها.
السفير اللبناني في السودان، أحمد شمّاط، قرّر أن «يلعبها لبنانيّةً» حتّى النهاية. استنكر الحادثة، لكنّه طالب السودان بالاعتذار من الشعب اللبناني، إذ رأى أنّ شعارات المتظاهرين السودانيين «إهانة للدولة والشعب اللبنانيّين»!

Inside info on Kafa's conference

Yesterday Kafa and the Danish Refugee Council launched their small research report entitled "Servant, daughter or employee?". It is a pilot study on the attitudes of lebanese employers towards migrant domestic workers.

For press coverage in Arabic
For press coverage in English

There were a lot of attendees. The representative of the minister of labor's words were unimpressive. (He was not quoted in the Daily Star, while he was quoted in Al-Akhbar saying that this issue was a priority to the ministry.)


There were a few migrant workers present. On the conference agenda was scheduled a talk by a migrant domestic workers, but she did not show up.

It is worth noting that Kafa's first issue of their MDW newsletter is really good. It includes the standard contract, raises issues at stake and negative issues in the contract, and includes important contact info. It is out in several languages in addition to English and Arabic.

Coverage and photos by Farah from http://www.nasawiya.org/

Human Rights Watch: Protecting Working Women Worldwide

Protecting Working Women Worldwide, as told by Nadim Houry, director of Human Rights Watch's Beirut office, June 22, 2010

It was 2008, and along Hamra Street, one of Beirut's main thoroughfares, women's rights demonstrators had placed a series of identical cutouts shaped like women's bodies. Painted red, each sign represented a migrant domestic worker who had died - and Human Rights Watch had discovered that they were dying in Lebanon at the shocking rate of one each week.
Many of these workers, who usually migrate from Asia and Africa to cook, clean, and care for children, had jumped out the windows of 4th or 5th story apartments, trying to escape their slave-like conditions.
When I saw the cutouts, I knew our advocacy campaign on this issue had taken off. The cutouts were placed there by a Lebanese women's rights group that had taken up the cause, strengthening our support base for this issue. Passers-by stopped to read the cutouts,

خادمة أم عاملة؟ النظرية العنصرية راجحة

جريدة الأخبار عدد الخميس ٢٤ حزيران ٢٠١٠

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/195009 

% من اللبنانيين يرون ضرورة أن يحتفظ صاحب العمل بجواز سفر العاملة (خلافاً للقانون) فيما يوافق 47% على تمتّع العاملات بيوم إجازة. هذه بعض نتائج دراسة «خادمة، ابنة أم عاملة» التي أُطلقت أمس لتضيء على واقع عاملات المنازل زينب زعيتر

لم تُحسن ماليكا العاملة الإثيوبية كيّ القميص، فعمدت سلمى صاحبة المنزل إلى إحراق يدها بالمكواة. لم تحرّك وكالة الاستقدام ساكناً، ولم تُقم أية دعوى قضائية لأنّ «زوج صاحبة المنزل» رجل ذو مركز. أمّا رانيا فتقفل المنزل بالمفتاح لدى خروجها وتبقى روفيتا العاملة الفيليبينية في الداخل، وعندما تسألها جارتها ماذا لو شبّ حريق في المنزل، يأتي الجواب «لا تقلقي، هؤلاء العاملات مثل القرود لا يصيبهم أي مكروه». أتت هذه الشهادات على ألسنة «أصحاب العمل»

How do employers view migrant domestic workers? (The Daily Star)

By Dalila Mahdawi - Daily Star staff - Thursday, June 24, 2010

BEIRUT: Lebanese employers of migrant domestic workers often project harmful paternalistic feelings toward their employees while at the same time nominally rejecting violations of their rights, a new report has said.

The study, “Servant, Daughter, or Employee? A Pilot Study on the Attitudes of Lebanese Employers toward Migrant Domestic Workers,” launched Wednesday by non-governmental organization KAFA: Enough Violence and Exploitation, also shows that employers are poorly informed about their contractual rights and obligations.

There are around 200,000 women migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, mostly from the Philippines, Ethiopia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Because they are excluded from protection under Lebanese labor laws, they are vulnerable to exploitation and human-rights abuses. They are also subject to a controversial kafala, or sponsorship, system, which effectively binds them to their employer.

But while the hardships endured by workers are receiving greater attention, the attitudes of employers still remain little understood.

KAFA’s study, which is the first major examination of perceptions of Lebanese employers toward their employees, is based on 102 interviews with Lebanese men and women employers and owners or managers of recruitment agencies.

The lack of a clear definition of domestic work means that “employers are free to mandate what work is performed by the employee,” said Zoya Rouhana, director of KAFA. “There are no clear borders,” she said, noting that domestic workers were often obliged to clean the houses of their employer’s relatives for no extra pay. “It is necessary to work on anchoring a sound contractual agreement. Migrant domestic workers should have decent working conditions.”

The study found widespread support for such practices as confiscating the passport of migrant workers or preventing them from meeting other individuals from their country of origin. It also revealed a widespread belief among employees that migrant workers are “only here to work” and a considerable degree of racism toward dark-skinned workers. But all employers rejected the rationing of food of domestic workers and said those who sexually abused their employee should be given the same punishment as someone who sexually abused a Lebanese woman.

“I do not accept to give [the domestic worker] a day off,” said one employer interviewed in the study. “She will go out, have a boyfriend and get pregnant. I [do not accept because I] have a young daughter.”

According to KAFA, many employers lock their employees in their house, with 37.7 percent allowing the domestic worker to leave the house on her own. Only 20 percent of the employers interviewed gave their employee a day off outside the home. “These results show an alarming trend and highlight that a large proportion of domestic workers in Lebanon cannot separate themselves from their employer even if they were allowed time to rest,” said report author Sawsan Abdulrahim.

“Whereas in Lebanese culture maternalism (and paternalism) mandates a high degree of both inclusion and protection, half of the Lebanese employers we interviewed circumscribed the space available in their homes for domestic workers,” Abdulrahim added, noting that 43 percent of employers forbade their employees from eating at the same table or from entering the living room while guests were over.

While most employers (93 percent) said they treated their employees like a family member, a considerable number added that they would fire their domestic worker if they got ill and hire a new one.

The relationship a domestic worker has with her employers depends less on the law and more on “the personal beliefs and values of the employers,” Abdulrahim said.

KAFA said that while Lebanon has recently taken some steps toward improving the rights of migrant domestic workers, the reforms did not go far enough. Lebanon’s recent formulation of a unified contract was a step forward but was riddled with omissions, said Mohanna As-Haf, a KAFA lawyer.

The costs and lengths of legal proceedings work discouraged abused workers from seeking legal redress, with the contract not solving the sponsorship dilemma a worker is placed in if she does file a lawsuit. There is also no way to see that the contract is enforced. “Rights are important when we can claim them,” As-Haf said. Until the contract grants parity between migrant workers and employers, it “remains only ink on paper.”