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

embassy three times to make an emergency certificate to be able to go to
my country without a passport. They gave it to me and when I went to the
airport to travel, they sent me back because there was a travel ban on me. I
don’t even know who the person that lodged a complaint against me is.” The
exit ban provides the employer with great leverage over the worker, as it can
take months, even years, to get such a ban lifted. The domestic worker will
only be able to travel once the competent national authorities have reviewed
the complaint.
Employers often use the threat of detention to prevent domestic workers from
leaving. “After three years, I wanted to leave as agreed, but Monsieur told me
I have to stay one more year, if not, he will not pay for the plane ticket,”
explained a woman from Madagascar living in Lebanon. “He threatened me,
he was shouting, shouting, shouting! I was really scared. I had no choice
but to stay as they forced me.” Domestic workers have often heard stories
of others in similar situations who have been detained in extremely poor
conditions. In Lebanon, the administrative detention centre of Adlieh, where
“runaway” migrant workers are confined, is located beneath a highway bridge
and has no access to natural light or fresh air. Most of the cells measure
approximately 28 square metres and are overcrowded. 76 The UN Special
Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons found that, “if apprehended, these
domestic workers will in many cases be prosecuted for illegal presence in
Lebanon and sentenced to one to three months of imprisonment because
the authorities often fail to take their abuse or exploitation into account”. 77
Box 3.5. Demand for money to obtain release
“One day, Madam called to tell me that the agent wanted to talk with me
and she brought me to the agency. But then, after ten minutes, Madam came
back with my luggage. They took me to the agent’s private house and put me
in a room on the roof, where there were five other girls like me. The agent
was asking me for US$2,000. He told me I was a liar and wanted to beat
me. I replied ‘Don’t even try’ and scared him. The agent told me to give him
US$2,000 if I wanted to leave. But I did not have the money. So I told him,
‘I’m not a prisoner, I just want to leave.’ Finally, as I could not pay him I went
back to the family.”
Interview with Kenyan domestic worker in Lebanon.
76
Huda: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights aspects of the victims of
trafficking in persons, especially women and children: Mission to Lebanon, p. 14; interview
with the head of the Adlieh detention centre, Lebanon, 27 Sep. 2011.
77
Huda: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights aspects of the victims of
trafficking in persons, especially women and children: Mission to Lebanon, p. 13.
62