Lebanon: Migrant Domestic Workers and the 2006 Crisis

This case study on migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Lebanon has been conducted for the EU-funded project ‘Migrants in Countries in Crisis: Supporting an Evidence-Based Approach for Effective and Cooperative State Action’. Six case studies have been prepared for this project to provide detailed information on the impacts of crises on migrants, particularly in the longer-term. For this case study, we have adopted a two-pronged approach. First, we examine the impact of the July-August 2006 war on MDWs in the country at the time, to analyse how domestic workers and other relevant governmental and civil society actors responded to MDWs’ needs during the crisis, and lessons learned as a result of this crisis. Nonetheless, MDWs themselves do not identify the 2006 war as a significant crisis for them, and Lebanon is currently in the midst of dealing with a humanitarian crisis due to the large number of Syrian refugees they are now hosting, some of whom have entered into domestic work. Therefore, as a second line of inquiry, we analyse the significance of ‘everyday crises’ in reference to acute humanitarian crises, where inequalities and abuse experienced by MDWs in the country can become exacerbated in a crisis situation.