Step It Up - Opens in new tab is a year-long campaign encouraging ratification of the Migrant Worker's Convention in 2015. The convention guarantees basic rights to migrant workers and addresses the particular vulnerabilities of domestic workers, migrant children, and those trapped in forced labor. Lebanon has not ratified or even signed the Convention, and continues to implement policies that violate the dignity and rights of migrants.
May 1 and May 15 are important dates; the first is a globally recognized holiday celebrating the history of the labour movement and the rights of labourers. These include the right to work, to mobility, and to organize and freely associate.
The second is evidence of why the movement lives on, that there remains a pressing need to realize and protect the labor and human rights of all workers, including migrants.
May 15 big day for Renuka Irangani and her husband Jagdish Kumar. That’s when their residence permit comes up for renewal. The couple was recently detained for weeks by Lebanon’s General Security. - Opens in new tab Residents of Lebanon for 15 years, they along with their daughter are now staying in a shelter operated by the Insan association until the day of their hearing.
Renuka, a founding member of the fledgling Domestic Workers’ Union, campaigned intensely against Lebanon’s recent refusal to renew residency permits of migrant worker’s children – including those born and raised in the country.
The Insan Association - Opens in new tab, which advocated for the couple’s release, wrote in their campaign : “…General Security told Renuka that “you are here to work, and not have children,” ordering her to send her daughter out of Lebanon. Renuka refused to do so, and vehemently spoke out in the media against this decision on several occasions.”
The purported reason for her detention was that she did not reside with her kafeel, though her sponsor supported her campaign.
Theirs is but one of the many turbulent stories of migrant workers bearing and raising children in the ‘host’ country.
...the Lebanese state has pursued in discriminatory policies against migrant children’ since 2014.
Lebanon’s hold over the most vulnerable of its migrant workers, those in domestic work, has tightened in recent years. But this hasn’t stopped an increasing number of them from joining the recently formed union to fight for their rights.
Sunitra, a mother of two, moved to Lebanon when she was just 23. That was 16 years ago, when she escaped war in Sri Lanka, It was here that she met her husband and had her children.
Renuka’s story could just as easily be hers. A member of the trade union, she told MRRORS.org she feels even more strongly about unionising and demanding their rights. She hopes that putting up a collective front will better protect them and their children.
The rights of migrant’s children - Opens in new tab are enshrined in the Migrant Workers Convention, alongside the rights of domestic workers. - Opens in new tab These entwined issues are repeatedly violated by the Lebanese government, attesting to the need for collective action to protect these rights.
According to Insan’s recent report Shattered Dreams–Children of Migrant Workers in Lebanon - Opens in new tab, the Lebanese state has pursued discriminatory policies against migrant children’ since 2014 (see excerpt in sidebar).
Gemma Justo, general secretary of the Domestic Workers’ Union, has lived in Lebanon for 22 years. A teacher by training, she made the move well aware of the risks involved.
“But not everyone has that awareness. When I came here, I saw the distress of my fellow domestic workers. I could not keep quiet. I had to do something. I started volunteering at the embassy. And then decided to work with other nationalities too. During the war worked in the shelter and heard such sad stories. Domestic workers being dropped off without being paid for 2 years.”
Now she tries to recruit more members, but it’s not an easy task. There are 350 members, just a tiny fraction of the estimated 250,000 domestic workers in the country.
The more vulnerable and exploited, the more difficult it is to convince them of the benefits of joining the union. She observes that there is a large number of Bangladeshis entering the country, and they are the worst paid, least organised and most isolated. They are yet to see the incentives of investing time and membership fees in the union.
That’s not the only challenge the union faces; on the one hand the Labor ministry refuses to recognise the union and on the other, as Justo points out, employers are threatened by the empowerment of their workers.
“They say yes to the Church, and no to FENESOL. They are scared of workers being enlightened.”
The more vulnerable and exploited, the more difficult it is to convince them of the benefits of joining the union.
On December 29, 2014, six Lebanese workers submitted a request to the Labor Ministry to form such a union. With support of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Trade Union Federation (ITUC), and the Federation of Trade Unions of Workers and Employees in Lebanon (FENASOL), approximately 350 domestic workers of various nationalities gathered - Opens in new tab for the union’s inaugural congress - Opens in new tab on January 25, 2015. But union members said they have received no response to their request, and Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi later denounced - Opens in new tab the union as illegal.
