Ghinwa Obeid
Civil society groups succeeded earlier this month in lobbying the Justice Ministry to revoke a decision that would have effectively put the personal lives of foreign workers under the scrutiny of the government.
The lobbying came in response to a decision issued by the Justice Ministry in October 2014, calling on public notaries to add a paragraph to the pledge that employers of foreign workers must sign before being able to use their services. The new amendment would have required the Lebanese employer to ensure that the foreign worker in their custody does not marry “any Arab or foreign person” while in Lebanese territories.
The decision, which was revoked by the ministry earlier this month after the lobbying effort, affected low-wage foreign laborers, primarily domestic workers. It also would have made the employer responsible for reporting any such marital unions to General Security. The worker in question would then promptly face deportation.
The new rule drew a backlash from civil society organizations and activists, who considered the move a violation of human rights.
“When we looked at the [pledge] statement ... we sent a memo to the Justice Ministry and we asked that it back down [on the decision],” Nizar Saghieh, executive director of Legal Agenda and a prominent human rights lawyer, told The Daily Star.
Other rights organizations, such as the Anti-Racism Movement and the Migrant Community Center, also signed the memo, which was submitted to the ministry in May 2015.
The document contained numerous legal arguments making the case that the amendment was inconsistent with the international human rights conventions that Lebanon has committed to, Saghieh explained.
Saghieh said the Council of Public Notaries had also been contacted as part of the lobby.
He added that the council discussed the issue with them and presented their memo to other concerned parties. Public notaries did not want to be associated with the amendment because it cast a negative light on Lebanon and its treatment of foreign workers, he added.
Saghieh said the amendment would have permitted employers to interfere in the private lives of their workers and turn them into “agents” for General Security.
“It gives the employer the jurisdiction to monitor their [the workers’] lives,” he said. “The government would be allowing its citizens to violate human rights instead of encouraging them to respect it.”
It took over nine months for the lobby to mobilize simply because civil society groups were initially unaware that the amendment existed or that it had been approved.
“The statement issued by the Justice Ministry ... contradicts the principle of freedom and human rights stressed by ... international conventions,” read a new statement from the ministry.
“So we ask all public notaries to ... go back to the formula used before to organize the sponsorship pledge for foreign workers.”
Commenting on the backlash the initial decision had prompted, a General Security source told The Daily Star that the amendment had been made to preserve the values of family and create a healthier atmosphere for children.
He argued that foreign workers, due to their temporary stay in Lebanon, could not build healthy family relations in Lebanon with “the father living in one place and the mother somewhere else.”
Ramy Shukr, coordinator of the MCC for the Anti-Racism Movement, said the ministry’s decision was one step in the right direction, but that much more needed to be done.
“This doesn’t mean that future violations won’t take place and it doesn’t negate the kafala [sponsorship system],” he said.
The sponsorship system ties a migrant domestic worker’s residence permit to one specific employer or sponsor in Lebanon, a reality that activists say encourages inequality and opens the door to abuse.
“General Security thinks that foreign workers come to Lebanon just to work, sit at home with no private life,” he added.
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