The Philippe Chaffanjon Journalism Prize – of which Dany Laferrière is honorary president – crowns this year a report on the slavery of migrant domestics in Lebanon by Noé Pignèdecorrespondent for several media outlets in the Middle East.
The kafalas are poor Africans (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya) and Asians (Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh), domestic servants to the Lebanese bourgeoisie. Lebanon has brought hundreds of thousands of them since 1970. Today there are more than 250,000 of them, for 6 million inhabitants, working fifteen hours a day, often 7 days a week, for a derisory salary.
These migrant domestics in Lebanon are particularly affected by the socio-economic crisis, aggravated by the pandemic, which is devastating the country. Many find themselves on the street, with no way to return to their country.
According to Human Rights Watch, an average of two domestic servants die each week in Lebanon, most from unnatural causes, including suicides.
Help from a Montreal NGO
An NGO, based in Montreal and Toronto, Egna Legna Besidet, works to rescue them. Founded by Banchi Yimer, an Ethiopian who served as a domestic worker there, the organization has, since 2017, helped more than 6,000 female migrant workers from Lebanon of different nationalities.
Assimilated to “modern slavery”, the “kafala” is also applied in several other countries in the Middle East. This is the legal framework defining the relationship between migrant domestics and their employers in Jordan and all the Arab Gulf States except Iraq. It was created to provide cheap and plentiful labor.
Slavery or legal guardianship
The word kafala dates back to Islamic jurisprudence on legal guardianship. Migrant domestic workers therefore enjoy no protection under the country’s labor law.
The lack of protections for the rights of female migrant workers results in low wages, poor working conditions and sexual abuse. Racism often amplifies the inhumane treatment of dark-skinned African and South Asian working women.
International organisations, including the European Union and the United Nations, have criticized the kafala system for years, but virtually no concrete action has ever been taken against it.