Lebanon migrant workers hope for union to end abuse

BEIRUT: Subjected to beatings and rape, and often driven to suicide, migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are trying to form a labour union in what would be a first for the Arab world.
“We want to be treated like human beings, like real workers,” said Leticia, a Filipina who was assaulted and raped by her employer several years ago.
“With this union, I will no longer feel alone in the face of abuse,” she told AFP.
Leticia joined more than 200 women from Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries at the founding conference of their hoped-for union in Beirut on Sunday.
Their initiative is unprecedented in the Arab world, which the United Nations says is home to some 30 million migrant workers.
It has the support of the National Federation of Workers’ Unions in Lebanon (FENASOL), which says the country has a quarter of a million migrant domestic workers.
But it has yet to win recognition from the government.
Labour Minister Sejaane Azzi told AFP that Lebanese law does not allow foreigners to set up a union, but “new laws are needed to improve the situation of housemaids”.
“Foreign workers in Lebanon are required to have valid residence and work permits, as well as health insurance,” said FENASOL head Castro Abdallah.
“So why is their contract not regulated under the labour law? It’s a job like any other.”
Rights groups frequently accuse Lebanon and Gulf states of racist and degrading treatment of migrant domestic workers, who are often referred to simply as “servants” or “Sri Lankans”, regardless of their nationality.