Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East, ‎pdf 4.1 MB

on the balcony. When it got cold, I got pneumonia.” Another domestic
worker from Cameroon, also living in Lebanon, said that she slept on a small
mattress in the living room and “felt like I was in an army camp”. Such
precarious conditions contravene national regulations in all four countries
studied, where in each case the employer is required to provide domestic
workers with suitable clothing, food, and accommodation. 50
Limited freedom of communication and movement
Several domestic workers interviewed said they were not allowed to own a mobile
phone. “I stole a phone when my employer was not in the house and called my cousin
for help, who then wrote a letter about my situation to my government in Kenya,”
recalled one woman. A Filipina domestic worker in Jordan also found that the rules
varied according to the employer: “My first Madam allowed me to call my family from
the house phone but at my second employer’s house, I had to hide my mobile during
the day and open it only at night to call my family.” The lack of communication with
friends and relatives weighed heavily on those confined to the home. 51 An Ethiopian
domestic worker in Lebanon explained what impact such confinement had on her:
“Madam would always lock the door. Her husband was home because he was sick
and would watch me every minute. I had no days off and I lost 10 kilograms.”
Box 3.3. Experience of a Nepalese domestic worker,
narrated by her sister
“My sister is in a very difficult situation, working for a bad family. Her
Madam does not give her enough food and beats her. She has been here for
two years. Her Madam does not let me visit her. She has no freedom. She
is not allowed to have a mobile phone. I call her every month but do not
know where she is.”
Interview with Nepalese domestic worker, Lebanon, 25 September 2011.
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Jordan, Ministry of Labour, Regulation for Home Workers, Cooks, Gardeners
and Similar Categories, No. 90, 2009, art. 4(d); Kuwait, Standard recruitment and
employment contract for domestic workers, 2010, art. 5(1); Lebanon, Ministry of
Labour, Work contract for migrant domestic workers, No. 19/1 (2009), art. 8; UAE,
Employment contract of domestic workers and similar categories, 2007, art. 4.
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Lebanon’s Work contract for migrant domestic workers, No. 19/1, 2009, art. 14,
stipulates that “the first party [the employer]shall undertake to allow the second party
[the employee] to receive telephone calls and correspondence intended for the latter
as well as to permit the second party to communicate with her/his parents once per
month on the expense of the first party, and otherwise the second party shall bear
the cost.” Jordan’s Regulation for Home Workers, Cooks, Gardeners and Similar
Categories, No. 90, 2009, art. 4(e), stipulates that the home owners “enable the worker
to contact his family abroad by phone at the expense of the home owner once a month,
and the worker has the right to additional calls at his own expense, in addition to
communicating with them in writing”.
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