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Anne-Marie Jazzar El Hage
Anne-Marie Jazzar El Hage has been a reporter since 1998. She works for L’orient-le Jour, the daily Lebanese Francophone paper, and writes about human rights, development, education, drugs and tourism. She also has a weekly column named “Cranky” which relates the everyday problems of citizens and denounces the corruption and lack of significance attributed to these problems. For her work, she has also received several distinctions, namely the second prize in 2004 and first prize in 2005 of the Lorenzo Natali Prize for the Arab World and Middle East region. Moreover, she was a finalist for the first edition of the Samir Kassir Prize. |
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This article highlights the problems of abuse and exploitation of foreign workers in Lebanon. Its objective was to instigate government action towards protecting the rights of foreign workers. The conditions in which household personnel work is by no means enviable and in some cases very close modern slavery. There is no law which regulates the work of household personnel; hence the employer is granted responsibility for his or her employee. The life and work of these employees is therefore left to the total discretion of the employer. Cases of abuse are common, as are cases of late or no salary payment. Many women do not have a day off and some are actually forbidden to leave the house. As a result, 148 Ethiopians have already committed suicide in Lebanon. |
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