Voices International ( http://www.voicesinternational.org.au/ ) is
seeking funding for our work focussing on the protection needs of
domestic migrant workers in Lebanon who are vulnerable for various
reasons and face challenges to effectively seek their rights as workers
and as human beings.
We are looking for all possible ways to fund this important work and
would appreciate any leads from the forced migration online community.
In particular, we'd be happy to hear of any philinthropic organisations
or other funders who are known to have an interest in this area.
The migration of people for economic opportunities is a global
phenomenon. However, often overlooked from international and national
laws are people that migrate to foreign countries to work as domestic
migrant workers. The issue of migrant domestic workers is particularly
important throughout the Middle East including Lebanon due to the large
numbers of these workers. Historically these women and less often men
have arrived from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia. New data is
however suggesting that in the last decade domestic migrant workers have
increasingly started coming from smaller Asian and African countries
like Bangladesh, Nepal, Madagascar and west African nations.
The more than 200,000 estimated migrant workers in Lebanon face acute
protection needs including:
- Express exclusion from basic protection offered under the domestic
labour law.
- Lack of effective government implementation and proper monitoring of
existing practices.
- Dependence on the sponsorship ‘kafala’ system means that their legal
status is closely tied to their employers.
- Lack of government regulation and control of the vast numbers of
employment agencies that bring these workers into Lebanon can lead to
exploitation.
- Restrictive immigration procedures mean that many workers who leave
their employers due to ill treatment and abuse can end up languishing in
detention waiting deportation.
- Negative stereotypes about domestic work and the perception amongst
employers of the status of their live-in workers often leads to poor
treatment and exploitation of these workers.
- Limited means to access to justice and effective redress for
violations of their rights and exploitation.
Voices International (VI) is an international protection NGO with the
global mandate ‘everyone deserves to be heard’. VI was registered in
Australia in early 2010 and opened its first office in Lebanon in April
2010. VI aims to help those people who are otherwise marginalised to
have a voice and the ability to advocate for their own rights.
VI works with a number of local and international partners to ensure a
complimentary response to the protection needs of this vulnerable group
and has activities ongoing and/or planned in four key areas:
- Oral history research/policy analysis including focus group
discussions that give vulnerable and marginalised domestic migrant
workers in Lebanon a voice and forum to advocate for their own rights.
- Social protection interventions supporting and empowering domestic
migrant workers.
-Promoting/ensuring access to legal aid and more generally justice for
domestic migrant workers.
-Promoting change in employers’ perceptions and government policy
through coordinated advocacy campaigns with other local actors.
I am very happy to provide more information on our work and / or the
situation of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. Please find contact
details below.
Please send all replies to: [log in to unmask]
Thanks for any help with this,
Alice Kennedy
Donor Relations
Voices International
E: [log in to unmask]
T: +961 70 38 65 93 (Overseas/Lebanon)
W: www.voicesinternational.org.au
--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Note: The material contained in this communication comes to you from the
Forced Migration Discussion List which is moderated by Forced Migration
Online, Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), Oxford Department of International
Development, University of Oxford. It does not necessarily reflect the
views of the RSC or the University. If you re-print, copy, archive or
re-post this message please retain this disclaimer. Quotations or
extracts should include attribution to the original sources.
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Posting guidelines: http://www.forcedmigration.org/discussion/guidelines
Subscribe/unsubscribe: http://tinyurl.com/fmlist-join-leave
List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/forced-migration.html
RSS: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?RSS&L=forced-migration
Twitter: http://twitter.com/forcedmigration
|