Migrant Deaths in Lebanon: Concealed Causes | News Report: September 2023
More Incitement Against, and More Fees for Recruiting Migrant Workers | News Report: February 2024
21/03/2024
News Reports 2024
News reports in February 2024 highlight more incitement against, more fees for recruiting migrant workers, and concerning cases of abuse and exploitation.
Articles and views shared in the News Report do not necessarily represent ARM’s views. Information in these articles has not been fact-checked by ARM and may contain some errors. ARM is simply compiling all news relevant to migrant communities to inform our advocacy efforts and to facilitate the work of organizations that cater to migrant communities.
Domestic Worker and Child Tied Up in an Armed Robbery in Beirut
On February 18, 2024, several media outlets reported an armed robbery that took place in Hazmieh, Beirut.
According to the reports, four masked gunmen broke into the residence of “F.S.” through forced entry. The assailants proceeded to tie up the domestic worker employed by FS and hold a young child at gunpoint, reportedly the homeowner’s daughter.
They then robbed a safe containing cash, gold, and documents worth approximately 50,000 US Dollars (USD) before fleeing the scene in a 4×4 vehicle, according to eyewitness accounts.
Shortly after, security forces were present on the scene and filed an investigation, however, additional details about the conditions of the worker, the child, and F.S. remain scarce.
Moreover, certain outlets, such as Kataeb, Lebanon 24, and El-Marada, did not include the domestic worker and the child in their coverage.
Sources: Kataeb.org, Lebanon 24, Cedar News, Al-Jareeda, El-Nashra, Beirut 24, El-Marada
Lebanese Military Arrest Syrian Refugee: His Disappearance Sparks Fear Over Unlawful Deportation [here]
Rafaat Falih, a former Assad regime army member and refugee in Lebanon, was arrested on January 10, 2024, at a checkpoint in Tripoli by the Lebanese military intelligence.
Falih’s arrest has raised serious concerns about his potential extradition to the Assad regime. His whereabouts have been shrouded in contradictory information.
Despite Lebanon’s non-ratification of the Geneva Refugee Convention, Falih falls under the protection of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Lebanon has ratified.
Falih’s family, as well as the legal support team at the Cedar Centre for Legal Studies (CCLS), have been unable to confirm his detention location, with officials providing conflicting reports about his transfer between military agencies and police stations.
However, on February 6, 2024, Falih’s family learned informally that Falih had been secretly transferred to Syria, specifically, to the notorious Palestine Branch of the Syrian Intelligence.
The legal team at CCLS has raised the case with the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, the Public Prosecutor of the Cassation Court, and the UNHCR office in Beirut.
CCLS fears that Falih may have already been unlawfully extradited to Syria, where he could face torture and physical harm.
This case highlights a concerning trend of unlawful deportations and extraditions from Lebanon to Syria, which violate the UN Convention against Torture ratified by Lebanon.
CCLS urges authorities to protect Falih, inform his family of his whereabouts, and respect their obligation to human rights conventions.
Multiple media reports are highlighting an increase in fees for the rules and laws regulating the recruitment of migrant workers.
The increase was reported in the 2024 financial budget, which was approved by the Council of Ministers on February 8, 2024.
An article in Al Diyar newspaper highlights the impact of the economic crisis on the recruitment of migrant domestic workers, as well as the impact on the workers themselves.
Many recruitment agencies have closed over the past few years as a result of the economic crisis, according to an internal source in the Ministry of Labor (MoL).
The closings can be cited for two main reasons: the first reason is the decline in demand for live-in domestic workers, which is linked directly to the impact of the economic crisis on employers, and the second reason is “unspecified violations of the law,” which is most likely linked to agencies that severely exploit workers, mostly through human trafficking, or violate the MoL’s regulations regarding fees and registration licenses.
The same source from MoL reported an increase in the work permit fees for domestic workers from 300,000 Lebanese Pounds (LBP) to 6,000,000 LBP, which is equivalent to an increase from 3 US Dollars (USD) to roughly 66 USD (as of the time of writing this report).
This increase was indeed officially reported in the Legal Gazette (Al Jarida Al Rasmieh) on February 15, 2024, under Article No. 38, Law No. 324 of the 2024 financial budget.
The article also mentions unofficial statistics on the domestic labor market in Lebanon, most notably that 20-30% of Lebanese families hire domestic workers (presumably live-in workers).
As for the conditions of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, the article confirms that their situation has deteriorated as a result of the economic crisis, citing long working hours, lack of rest days, and violations of their labor rights.
According to the article, migrant domestic workers mostly work as part-time live-out workers and get paid according to an hourly rate. Al Diyar claims that the employment of live-out workers is often facilitated by recruitment agencies themselves, a practice that the internal source at MoL deemed as “illegal.”
Another article published in Al Liwaa newspaper reported on a meeting between the chairman and general manager of the Housing Bank, Antoine Habib, the bank’s legal advisor Malek Arslan, and the Minister of Labor, Mustafa Bayram.
One item on the agenda of the meeting was the deposit certificates paid to the Housing bank for recruiting migrant workers, which is a permit that employers and recruitment offices must acquire before recruiting migrant workers.
The article vaguely reports on deposit certificates, only stating that the aim behind the meeting was “to implement and update the mechanism for joint cooperation in managing the deposits of these certificates within a new framework that benefits all concerned parties.”
Given the timing of the meeting and the tone of the reporting, we (ARM) speculate that the purpose of the meeting was to adjust the deposit fees according to the 2024 budget.
The Housing Bank, or Banque de l’Habitat, is a Lebanese joint-stock company between the Lebanese Government and the Private Sector (banks, insurance companies, and individual investors). It is one of the stakeholders that financially benefit from the Kafala system, specifically the recruitment of domestic workers.
Recruitment agencies are required to pay 300 million LBP (equivalent of 3,333 USD as of the time of writing this report) to the Housing Bank for a deposit certificate, according to Article 19 of the MoL’s Resolution No. 41/1 dated 11/05/2022.
These deposit certificates are a strict condition for recruitment agencies registering in the MoL, granting them a permit to acquire pre-approvals and recruit up to 300 migrant domestic workers per year.
The article also states that recruitment agencies must pay 50 million LBP (around 555 USD) for an additional deposit certificate for every 50 additional pre-approval applications workers over the yearly 300 pre-approvals limit.
Nidaa Al Watan reported that the increase in fees from the financial budget for 2024 could potentially bring revenue to the MoL amounting to 400 billion LBP, the equivalent of 4.4 million USD (as of the time of writing this article) for the recruitment fees of migrant domestic workers specifically, and 500 billion LBP, the equivalent of 5.5 million USD for the recruitment fees of migrant workers in general.
You can read more about recruitment regulations on the MoL’s website in both English and Arabic here
In a symbolic gesture, the Syndicate of Owners of Recruitment Agencies in Lebanon (SORAL) installed a solar energy system for the Ministry of Labor’s (MOL) office in Baalbek.
Minister of Labor Mustafa Bayram received the gift during a ceremony attended by officials and political figures, including the Head of SORAL, Joseph Saliba, and the Mayor of Baalbek Bachir Khoder.
Bayram praised the “cooperation between the public and private sectors,” claiming that it builds trust between SORAL’s administration and citizens.
He also revealed that increases to the minimum wage and educational grants in the private sector are expected within a month.
The so-called “gift” from SORAL raises questions about the recruitment agencies’ true intentions. The gesture could be viewed as an attempt by SORAL to curry favor with the MoL, which regulates their industry.
Earlier in January, SORAL published a vague statement warning employers from hiring irregular domestic workers through what it deemed to be “unlawful” methods.
The methods, according to SORAL, are advertising of daily, monthly, or yearly domestic “services” provided by migrant workers on various online platforms.
SORAL claims that most of the workers, as well as those who facilitate their employment, are working “illegally” as they violate residency regulations.
The so-called “violations” also include:
- Complaints about “quitting work” from previous employers.
- Various unnamed crimes, including random claims of theft.
SORAL threatens to pursue legal action, by filing complaints and reports against these workers with the Lebanese judiciary, relevant ministries, and security agencies. Additionally, the syndicate vows to prosecute any facilitators or accomplices.
Later in February, SORAL published a few posts detailing an amendment to the 2024 budget. The amendment, under Article 38, specifies increases to the fees paid to the Ministry of Labor.
SORAL emphasized two fees from the amendment:
- A fine for violating the Lebanese labor law, which amounts to 30,000,000 Lebanese Pounds (LBP), roughly 330 US Dollars (USD).
- A fine for employing non-Lebanese without a work permit, which amounts to 50,000,000 LBP, roughly 550 USD.
This isn’t the first time SORAL incites against the employment of irregular or live-out workers. Saliba has appeared in multiple media reports to incite against irregular or undocumented migrant workers and threaten to take legal action against them, as well as their employers.
Other sources, such as Lebanon Debate, noted that the MoL can inspect the legality of employees working in any institution in Lebanon. MoL inspectors may fine institutions that are hiring irregular workers with either or both of the fines mentioned above.
While MoL fines and inspections aren’t anything new, the increase in fees, accompanied by the various campaigns and media reports inciting against workers can be seen as alarming.
Lebanese Forces Call for the Surveillance of Migrant Workers for Child Abuse [here]
Lebanese Forces (LF) published an article highlighting an incident between an employer and a migrant domestic worker. The employer accused the worker of physical violence against the employer’s children and violation of their privacy.
The incident came to light when the employer claimed that one of their children had been physically abused during their absence. This led to the employer confronting the worker and checking her phone where they found videos and images of the children shared in WhatsApp group chats with other migrant workers.
Even though the worker is facing persecution from security agencies based on the family’s accusations, LF did not hesitate to take advantage of this case and incite against all migrant workers, specifically nannies.
For example, the article’s headline calls on families to “monitor migrant workers” implying that they “endanger [the readers’] children,” which is nothing short of racist incitement motivated by an isolated incident, disguised as a clickbait.
And while LF admits that generalizing the worker’s behavior to all migrant domestic workers is “unfair, unjust, unscientific and not even objective,” the combination of accusations from the employer, the consequences that the worker is facing based on said accusations, and the incitement in the headline, as well as the overall use of inciteful language serves only to stigmatize migrant workers who are working under an exploitative system, which covers for the absence of the state-provided care work.
General Security Publishes List of Arrests, Entry/Exit, Work Visas Disaggregated by Nationality from Mid-December 2023 to Mid-January 2024 [here]
The General Security Office (GSO) published a breakdown of arrests, entry/exit, and work visas between mid-December 2023 and mid-January 2024 in the new issue of the GS journal released on February 6th. Highlights included the following:
- Nearly 484 migrants and refugees were arrested and interrogated;
- 517 migrants and refugees were released from detention after interrogation;
- Around 3,365 work visas were granted to migrant workers mostly from Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Kenya. There is no information on how many of these work permits were granted to newcomers.
249,119 foreigners and migrants entered Lebanon compared to 254,322 who left in the said time period.
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