Stop Domestic Workers Abuse

In the wake of recent cases of alleged abuse and murder of Ethiopian migrant domestic workers employed in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, we urge your governments to ensure timely and comprehensive responses to these individual cases and to implement systemic reforms to prevent such abuses in the future.
Since August 2011,several cases of physical abuse and murder of Ethiopian migrant domestic workers have been reported in the news. These include:
• Alem Dechasa, a 33-year-old Ethiopian domestic worker in Lebanon who was beaten in public by her employer and was reported to have committed suicide several days later
• Neima Mohammad Kadir, an Ethiopian domestic worker in Bahrain who died from pregnancy related complications because she was denied access to medical care by her employer
• Hana Ashalohaili, a 20-year-old Ethiopian domestic worker in Lebanon who committed suicide

The table below includes additional details of abuse reports in the news of Ethiopian domestic migrant workers in the Middle East.

Month/Year Name Location of Crime Type of Crime
March 2012 Alem Dechasa Lebanon Kidnap/murder
Feb 2012 Unknown Kuwait Rape
Feb 2012 Neima Mohammad Kadir Bahrain Death of a pregnant woman; medical care denied
Feb 2012 Unknown Kuwait Beaten for ironing to slow
Feb 2012 Unknown Kuwait Suicide
Jan 2012 Unknown Saudi Arabia Suicide
Jan 2012 Unknown Kuwait Suicide
Jan 2012 Unknown Kuwait Attempted suicide
Jan 2012 Unknown Saudi Arabia Suicide
Jan 2012 Unknown UAE Attempted suicide
Dec 2011 Hana Ashalohaili Lebanon Suicide
Dec 2011 Unknown Kuwait Murder
Nov 2011 Yanet K Lebanon Suicide
Nov 2011 Unknown Kuwait Murder
Nov 2011 Unknown Kuwait Murder
Nov 2011 Unknown Kuwait Physical abuse
Nov 2011 Unknown Kuwait Suicide
Nov 2011 Hawa Ali UAE Physical abuse
Aug 2011 Shweyga Mullah Libya Burnt alive

We acknowledge the steps the US government has taken thus far to urge the Middle East countries ratify ILO conventions including Forced Labor Convention, Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, Equal Remuneration Convention, Abolition of Forced Labor Convention, and Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention. However, to date the governments in the Middle East have not changed the labor laws to include domestic workers.

There are no complaint mechanisms that are easily accessible to domestic migrant workers. Many cases of abuse may never reach authorities because domestic workers are isolated in private homes and unaware of how to seeking help.
In Lebanon alone there are approximately 50,000 Ethiopian migrant. Saudi Arabia has also recently requested 45,000 Ethiopian domestic migrant workers per month. Yet gaps in labor laws and the consequences of the kafala system in many Arab countries create conditions that facilitate abuse of Ethiopian migrant workers. Many organizations such as the Human Rights Watch have documented abuses including nonpayment of wages, forced confinement in the workplace, confiscation of passports, excessive work hours with little rest, and physical and sexual abuse. A migrant worker's residency status is tied to her employer. The employer can repatriate the worker at will and must grant explicit permission before the worker can transfer employment or leave the country. These policies give the employer unreasonable control and the worker may be unable to leave despite physical and emotional abuse.
Although many of your governments have drafted changes to the labor law that would extend certain protections to domestic workers, including a weekly rest day and annual leave, legislation has yet to pass in Arab countries. We urge you, as the Human Rights Watch group has previously recomended, to demand the Middle East countries

• Cooperate with labor-sending countries to conduct investigations into cases of abuse in a timely manner; prosecute alleged perpetrators; allow victims to return to their home countries prior to the trial; provide victims an opportunity to give testimony; and seek both criminal penalties and financial compensation.

• Fulfill promises to reform or abolish the kafala system such that employers cannot summarily cause the repatriation of migrant workers, and so workers do not require their employer's consent to change jobs or obtain an exit visa to leave the country.

• Amend the labor law on domestic workers and ensure that it guarantees protections equal to those afforded to other workers, including a weekly day of rest where workers are free to leave the workplace.

• Conduct public awareness campaigns about domestic workers' rights and provide complaints mechanisms aimed at the needs of migrant domestic workers, including hotlines with staff who are fluent in the languages commonly spoken by the workers.

• Provide practical mechanisms to reduce domestic workers' isolation, such as requiring provision of mobile phones and establishing community centers for domestic workers on their days off.