25. The Kafala System: Why two migrant domestic workers die in Lebanon every single week

Asylum Speakers Podcast with Jaz O'Hara: Stories of Migration

This week’s episode of the Worldwide Tribe podcast is about something we all need to know about... The Kafala System.

Kafala means sponsorship. It’s a system common across many Arab countries, where a citizen of that country can ‘sponsor’ someone from a poorer country to come and work for them.

There are around 400,000 migrant domestic workers in Lebanon under the Kafala System right now. They come from countries such as Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Sudan, Ghana Kenya, and others, to work in private households as maids. They are excluded from Lebanese labour law and 94% of these women have their passports confiscated by their employers on arrival. Their immigration status is also legally bound to the sponsor, leaving them at risk of exploitation, physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

Shockingly, two of these women die in Lebanon every single week.

Whilst in Beirut a few months ago, I got an insight into this system when I met a group of Nigerian women desperately trying to escape it.

This episode is for them, and for every woman trapped in hell in this blatant example of modern day slavery. The least we can do is listen to them, learn about their plight and join them in calling for the immediate abolishment of the Kafala System.

To find out more:

https://thisislebanon.news/

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