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

Many other domestic workers interviewed spoke about forced isolation,
confinement and surveillance. One domestic worker had escaped only
narrowly, after blocking out the security cameras in the estate and
disconnecting the sensors. “It was a very big house and no one could leave
it freely,” recalled the woman. “There were security guards, cameras, sensors
and one alarm. The door was always closed.” Some recruitment agents also
forcibly confine domestic workers in their offices before transferring them to
their employers. An official from the Jordanian anti-trafficking unit recalled:
“We dealt with a case of nine domestic workers of different nationalities who
were detained for several days by the agency which brought them to Jordan.
We got a call from them through the hotline and we were able to free all the
girls.” 52
The fact that the standard contracts do not guarantee the domestic worker’s
right to free movement makes it more difficult for domestic workers to
challenge the constraints imposed by their employers. It also runs counter to
the provisions under the ILO’s Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No.
189), which clearly stipulates in article 9 that domestic workers “who reside in
the household are not obliged to remain in the household or with household
members during periods of daily and weekly rest or annual leave”. In Kuwait,
the contract neglects to mention the worker’s right to free movement during
non-working hours, stipulating only that the worker should enjoy a weekly
day of rest “with her/his family”. 53 Similarly, in the UAE the standard contract
mentions neither a weekly rest day nor the opportunity to go out of the
house freely outside working hours. 54 In Lebanon, the contract does not state
whether the domestic worker will be able to spend her day off outside
the house. 55 In Jordan, national regulations explicitly restrict the domestic
worker’s freedom of movement, including outside working hours, by making
her ability to leave the house conditional on the employer’s consent and “his
knowledge of her whereabouts”. 56
52
Telephone interview with an official from Jordan’s Public Security Directorate, Anti-
Trafficking Unit, 26 Sep. 2012.
53
Kuwait, Standard recruitment and employment contract for domestic workers,
2010, art. 6(1).
54
UAE, Employment contract of domestic workers and similar categories, 2007,
stipulates only (art. 1(2)) that the domestic worker "has to be given sufficient periods
to rest”.
55
Lebanon’s Work contract for migrant domestic workers, No. 19/1, 2009, art. 12,
stipulates: “The first party [the employer] shall pledge to grant the second party [the
employee] a period of weekly rest of not less than twenty-four continuous hours, the
conditions of the use of which shall be defined by agreement between both parties.”
56
Jordan’s Regulation for Home Workers, Cooks, Gardeners and Similar Categories,
No. 90, 2009, art. 5(5), stipulates that the worker must “refrain from leaving the house
without the permission of the householder who must be informed of the worker’s
whereabouts”.
57