Kafala-Arbeiter leiden besonders unter Krieg im Libanon
In einer Reportage berichtet CNN über das Schicksal so genannter Kafala-Arbeiter im Libanon.
Das System ist unter dem Namen Kafala bekannt, überall im Nahen Osten weit verbreitet und de facto eine moderne Form der Sklaverei. Die Anti-Sklaverei Organisation Walk Free beschreibt es so:
The kafala system is a set of laws and policies that delegate responsibility for migrant workers to employers, including control over their ability to enter, reside, work, and, in some cases, exit the host country. Workers typically cannot leave or change jobs prior to completion of their contract, before a certain time period, or without permission from their employer. Those who do leave may run the risk of arrest and deportation for the crime of absconding. The system also limits the ability of exploited workers to access justice. In practice, a worker who leaves their job not only risks losing their means of earning an income, but also risks becoming an illegal migrant. This threatens their ability to pursue legal action against their employer and recover any income they are owed. If deported, workers may also face bans on returning to the country to work. Legal redress is made even more difficult by prolonged, expensive court processes, limited legal assistance, and the absence of interpreters. Some employers reportedly create additional barriers to justice; for example, by levelling false allegations of theft against migrant workers in retaliation for leaving or filing false absconding reports with law enforcement to avoid paying wages owed.15 Migrant workers can be deported even where no evidence exists to support the accusations, while employers enjoy impunity.
Auch im Libanon sind Hunderttausende über das Kafala-System als Haushaltshilfen und Arbeiter angestellt. Was das konkret für sie bedeutet kann man sich in diesem Video anschauen:
Wie sehr sie nun auch vom Krieg Israels gegen die Hizbollah im Libanon betroffen sind, beschreibt eindrücklich eine Reportage auf CNN:
In late September, the Israeli military assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Shia political and militant group Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that since then over 1.2 million people have been displaced by strikes and fighting between the Israeli Army and Hezbollah – around a fifth of the Lebanese population.
A significant proportion of the estimated 177,000 migrant workers living in Lebanon are thought to be among them. Most are employed under the country’s ‘kafala,’ or sponsorship, system. This system — used in Lebanon, Jordan and many Gulf countries — fuses a worker to one employer and in the process, their rights and agency are removed. The employer takes the worker’s passport, they are exempt from the country’s labour protections and though they can be fired, they can never quit. In 2021, UN Women estimated that “76% of all migrant workers and 99% of migrant domestic workers” in Lebanon were women.
“What we understand of the kafala system is that it sounds like a modern-day slavery system,” said Nour Shawaf, regional humanitarian policy advisor for Oxfam, speaking above the constant buzz of an Israeli drone flying above her office.
“The employers who have taken the passports of the migrants have left them with no paperwork today, so they are stuck in the country. Even if they decide to leave, they do not have legal documentation to leave.”
As the Israeli military’s bombing campaign has intensified across Lebanon, many migrant domestic workers have been abandoned by their employers who have fled their homes to save themselves.
Another migrant domestic worker from Sierra Leone, who was too scared to give her name for fear of reprisals, recalled how her employers left the house as the bombing started and told her to “stay and look after it.”