Safety measures for migrant women

Lebanon is a popular destination for Asian and African migrant workers looking for work and a better future. The number of migrant workers has risen steadily in recent years, with Lebanon estimated to have more than 250,000 domestic workers.

These domestic workers are almost all women. The families who employ these women, children included, often consider these women to be their property and cruelly abuse their position of power. In many cases, the employers restrict their freedom until they have worked off the administration fee, flight and insurance costs. Some women effectively end up a prisoner in the home, either temporarily or for the entire duration of the two- to three-year contract.

As part of this project, Caritas international is supporting the work carried out by the “Olive Shelter”, a women’s shelter run by Caritas Lebanon. Here, the women in question receive social, psychological, legal and medical support, while optional, employment-based training is also provided. A key outcome of this work is that women with children, sick or pregnant women, as well as women who have become victims of trafficking, are not being imprisoned in Lebanon but are transferred to the shelter instead.

The Redel Foundation is supporting these efforts with €50,000.

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