one day the kafala system will change

Rose:

Per week, at least two migrant workers are dying. This is too much. Saying that always the conclusion of suicide, I don’t believe that this is always the case. I know that there are people, especially that the employers are dignitaries or high-ranking officers, whatever their position is, they cannot reveal that in public that this is the name of the employer. I will mention the example that I know, one migrant worker that she was new here in Lebanon. She’s only two months and not having her residence, and working permit, and insurance to be legal in Lebanon. So she was behind closed doors. She kill herself from the balcony from the seventh floor. So in that case, I was asking myself why would this person coming from this country, she’s been only two months and end up killing herself, that she has two small kids back home, and she has a husband, and before end up her dead body, she mentioned to her husband that her employer was saying to her that if you will be good, we will be good to you, and if you will be bad, you will not see your family anymore. So this is a serious word from an employer that will… it’s a threat. One day, December, she talked to her family, and then January she died.

 

The employer should be… their names should be written in the journal who wrote this case, to really see the truth. I think there should be someone responsible for that, to be thrown in jail. Let’s have fair treatment. Where is justice? Enough is enough, this needs to be stopped.

 

Sounds of chanting, drumming and whistling.

 

Rose:

My name is Rose.

 

Sara:

My name is Sara. We are here in Sodeco Square in Beirut. It’s memorable for us and this place, I think it’s important for us.

 

Rose:

This is the place where, for two years now, we assemble every Labour Day, May 1^st, here at Sodeco Square. We go out for Labour Day as a demonstration to let the government, especially the Ministry of Labour, to hear what we are really… what’s the reason why we are on the street, why we are chanting all this, and why we say all these things like ‘abolish kafala system,’ the sponsorship, justice and protection for the migrant domestic workers and –

 

Sara:

Include in the labour law.

 

Rose:

Include us in the labour law. Because these are so important for us, or else we will remain invisible.

 

Sara:

If I am in the work, of course there is the laws of the house. There is Madam. So Madam say ‘Don’t do that, don’t do this,’ so I will follow what Madam said. But when I am in the road, I am free, it’s my day off, oh, I’m free! So I can speak whatever I want. With the domestic workers from all the different countries behind me also. So I feel free and I feel strong, so I can be happy, and I can raise my voice very high. That is my feeling.

 

Rose:

It is the time for me to communicate with people, there is no barriers of language and colour, and no superiority, that we are all equal. We have the same problem, and we are fighting. Not only one voice, but this is a solidarity of all the migrant domestic workers, showing that we are one.

 

The message is about the kafala system, abolish the kafala system. Because if we are under the kafala system it’s that we are treated like we are slaves, and the employers are treating us like they own us. Here in Lebanon it’s that when we come for work as migrant domestic workers, we have our sponsor. And that sponsor is our employer, where we work, under their name. And why we say that abolish the kafala system? Because it’s making, many of the migrant domestic workers are tied to their employers. Their freedom and their rights have been taken away from us – I’m not saying for them, but for me, because I’m a domestic helper, so I am including myself – that this is why we want to abolish the kafala system, the sponsorship.

 

Sara:

From the beginning, from you leave your country to here, the visa is already linked with garant, with somebody. Not you take the visa, and you go. But your visa is linked already with somebody else, so you are under that somebody, and you cannot move. Finish your freedom, finish your voice, finish everything for you. That’s why we say abolish kafala system, because it’s slavery moderne, for us.

 

Rose:

Most of what we are fighting, it’s in the contract. The problem here in Lebanon is that they’re not implementing. The government and the employers themselves and the private agencies are responsible for doing this. It’s stated in the contract that we sign that we work this time for eight hours, and we have our day off every week.

 

Sara:

There is contract when we leave our country, we sign. When we come here we sign again. So to make it one, to unify the contract as one only, one contract from the country of origin, to come in Lebanon.

 

Sounds of chanting – ‘Abolish Kafala!’ – cars beeping.

 

Sara speaks, laughing:

For me the moment is the time when we pass and the girls was in the balcony. We shout for the… my colleague has microphone, she says ‘Freedom, freedom! Free the contract girls!’ So, she shout on the microphone. Then one woman, I don’t know if Lebanese or don’t know, but she’s white. She come again, she join us. She talk in Arabic, ‘Freedom for the contract girls.’ So I say ok, there is people… I’m happy because there is people behind us, not only us domestic workers. It was nice, because she herself, she come, and she stop, and she said ‘Give me the microphone, I will tell for her in our language.’

 

Rose:

This is so memorable. For two years, consecutive two years, that we’ve been gathering in the same place and seeing the same place where we were before, just like imagining the voices, the screaming and the happiness. And the people are just not thinking of anything. They leave all their problems behind. It’s just a day of happiness, and freedom. If you see everyone’s faces, everyone’s body movement, you can really see the expression of happiness, and joy. And now that I am back in this same place, it’s sad and happy at the same time. Because, you know, all the effort that we did, all these things, and nothing changes. So, it makes us feel bad.

 

Sara:

When I see the people in the balcony, I feel like me, before. The first time I come. I cannot go out. I just have the balcony to rescue, to see what is Lebanon. I don’t have any place to see what is Lebanon. But now I’m very free, I’m still contract, but it’s very different – little bit different, I can have my day off and everything. And I feel also for that girl: now she will go in again to cook, to clean, to give them food, and maybe she will not eat, even. Because this is something difficult here for the people – even they are rich, they will not give you food. I don’t know if you are robot, you just make in the electricity and charge, but you need food. So I’m feeling her, I’m feeling sad because, I’m feeling her now she is going to work too much, she will not have sit down, she don’t have anything. And this is the only day we can raise our voice outside. And look at her, she stay. Maybe the door even closed with the key. She cannot go even outside. But just the balcony is the one place she has to… to take wind.

 

Rose:

It’s really sad to see someone that… that’s the time that we have once a year, that we have our freedom to be on the street and to have our voices heard. But seeing a person on the balcony that is not free during that day – especially Sunday, it’s an off-day – seeing her at the balcony, that’s supposed to be that it’s her free day, but she is kept in the house. She cannot even… she’s happy to see that there is somebody fighting for her rights, but it doesn’t mean that this will help her. She still remains as a prisoner in that home where she is. It doesn’t mean that because we are fighting for her rights that she can get that right also.

 

You know, when you are inside the house, and behind closed doors, nobody will notice what’s going on, behind closed doors. We’ve been on demonstrations for so long, maybe for ten years, and still, that’s why I use the word invisible. It’s true. Even if we have somebody with us – like they say ‘We support them’ – but in reality, they are not. They ignore. We remain invisible. They don’t really know what we feel inside, and what other migrant domestic workers feel inside, behind closed doors. And they are not doing anything. For ten years. Just imagine, ten years. Why there is nothing, at least a law that they will say ok, the private agency if the employer will hire a worker there should be, every three months or whatever, that they can visit, and ask the domestic workers ‘What are you going through? Are you happy?’ Just to see how she is doing inside, behind closed doors. Because if not, we never know. There’s so many cases that we never know, and end up committing suicide. It’s better if you are in prison – they allow someone to visit them, to talk to them. But if you are behind closed doors, no. You have no freedom at all. So are you treating these people as human? Or an animal that doesn’t understand what you are saying?

 

That day is a big day for us. Everyone’s big day. But after the march, it’s just like nothing happened. It’s not worth it. If nothing changes, and we are marching for how many hours, and no changes, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s not worth it. Why we sacrifice every single year to march, and nobody’s hearing us?

 

Sara:

It’s difficult to fight for ten years and nothing’s changed. Really, sometimes we can say khalas, finished, I don’t want to do it anymore. But, as activists we have that hope: one day it will be changed. One day it will be changed. And we feel… for myself, I will hope one day, one day it will change. The system will change. Everything will change. Even small things, but they will change. So I keep that in my mind, so like this time I feel strong again. To face all the problems and to continue again and again and again, every year and every day.

 

Rose:

During this time, it’s memorable because we can express our anger. In chanting, in shouting, and say whatever you want to say. You’re free to say anything. And at the same time, it’s… you feel yourself that for so long… It’s frustrating.

 

Sara:

For me and her, we have that mind – one day. That hope. One day will change. So we keep that in our minds so we continue all the time, all the time. But really, sometimes we say ‘Oh leave it, finish, I don’t want to do it anymore.’ But after, when we see again something that’s happened, or sometimes you listen news somebody fall down from the balcony, again, you back your feeling and say ‘Ah, let’s continue again. Why she’s dead, for nothing?’

 

Rose:

Activism here in Lebanon is dangerous. So like us, as migrant domestic workers, as we are involved in activism, we have limitations. Some of our colleagues were deported. We remain as activists fighting for our rights, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have rules to abide. We always abide by the rules. For our protection.

 

Sounds of chanting and screaming, even louder. Cars beeping, whistling, chants of ‘Abolish Kafala!’

 

Rose:

I was a field researcher, I have a very nice job in the Philippines. They’re convincing like ‘It’s nice to work abroad, you will earn more what you are earning here,’ so I listen.

 

Sara:

Why we are coming here in Lebanon, first of all Madagascar people because our economy was fall down too much. No work. No anything.

 

Rose:

My experience when I first came to Lebanon was that I was working as a contract for three years. And what I signed as the contract in my country was only two years. And I have to sign another contract when I arrive that it’s stated three years. And just imagine, three years is so long that I will not see my family.

 

Sara:

Me I heard already, me I know Lebanon. I know the history of Beirut: there is bombing, bombing, bombing, bombing! It was in my head, the bombing. So I said khalas, I’m coming again in the place where war is still war. When I reach from the plane, I see down, it’s catastrophe. Because I see all the building was collapsed. I don’t know what I feel, but I think, ‘If this plane can go back to my country, I will go back. Because I cannot go down in this place!’

 

Rose:

The day that I arrived, I started working. She said, ‘Put your uniform on.’ It’s disgrading. It’s like, you are disgrading this person. Just to be identified that she’s a worker in the house.

 

Sara:

We see the policeman tell us… they told me alone because I am the only stranger [foreigner] inside that plane, after he told me ‘You! Here!’ I tell him, ‘I don’t understand you at all, what you are talking!’ It’s a language I don’t hear in my life! So I come, follow him. Then he take my passport. Then he put me inside one room.

 

Rose:

This passport that we took from our country of origin, when we process our passport, it’s not easy. It’s not for free what we are processing when we are processing our passport. So everything that we spent of this one, that we sweat a lot, we put an effort every time, we move, it’s not close to where we live, we have to travel to a long place, just to have this passport. And then, when we arrive in Lebanon, just like that – click! – ‘Give me your passport’. So it hurts us so much. It is also in our passport, especially Philippine passport, that at the back of our passport it is written ‘Only the bearer has the authority to keep his passport,’ his own passport. Do they not understand? It is so very clear, and you will confiscate our… This is our life, here in Lebanon, we have to keep it. No matter what. Give it to us. This belongs to us, not for the employer, not for the agency, not for anybody. This belongs to us.

 

Sara:

I was still young, I was 21. So, I have homesick. And then they eat, they eat like.. the first thing that they eat it was kibbeh. She doesn’t like when I am sit down. When I eat, when I am sit down, like she want to take the chair to say ‘You cannot have to sit down.’ When I am eat, she go come, go come. So I have, how to call it, the food stays here! It cannot go down! Because in my country it’s mamnoa[forbidden], you cannot do that. When somebody eat, everybody sit down. So I start from that, is my fight. I say, ‘I cannot live like this: I don’t have even half hour to sit down to have lunch and digest my food?’

 

Rose:

I don’t have my coffee, I don’t have my rice, I don’t have… so whatever she will give me, I will eat. So I have to sneak something in her fridge, like butter, to just wipe it on the bread and rub it, and then eat it. Sometimes I put it in my pocket, in my uniform pocket I put it. So I said ‘I have to survive.’ I have to see ways that I can survive, in order to eat.

 

Sara:

Every morning also, when she say ‘Go buy croissants’: two, for them only. Me? No. I’m not have right to eat croissants. When I have my salary I keep little money with me. When she told me to go buy croissants, I go bought for them, I go bought for me also. In my money! So then I bring, and she told me ‘Why you, how much croissants?’ I say ‘Madam, this is the rest of your money’ – because she count until the 250 also – and I have to take all the receipts of the place where I am writing, and then the 250 or 500 – and then I give to her. I say, ‘This is your croissant, and this is the rest. Count it. It’s clear?’ She told me, ‘Yes. And for who these two croissants?’ she told me. I say ‘For me. Me too I have right to eat croissants!’ So I eat my croissant in front of her. Really I eat it well, well, well!

 

Rose:

I have to be there whenever she calls me, I have to be right away there. Without any day off. No day off. I’m not allowed to go. So whenever my employer goes out of the house, she will lock the door.

 

Sara:

First salary, I ask. She give to me, normally. Second salary, ok. I ask, not give direct end of the month, but ask, ‘Madam, where is my salary?’ She start to say ‘No, after three years I give your salary because you are small, your future…’ badadi badada, too much. I say, ‘Madam, I’m coming here to support my mum and my dad. Because they are old, they are old now and they need money.’ After she told me ok, and she give. Next third month, every time I will take my salary, I have to invent a story. My mum’s sick, my dad’s sick, or my… something problem, before she will give my salary.

 

Rose:

I’m only receiving a small amount of salary, but she’s keeping it. Always she has reason: ‘No, because you will lose it, or why you are spending, you don’t have to spend anything…’ I said ‘No, that’s my right! I have to do it, I have my family that I will send my money to them.’ She said, ‘Let them work, or whatever. Don’t send all your money to them,’ or something like that. I said, ‘No, this is not our culture. We support our family. No matter what, if we don’t have anything left for us, but we have to send for them. They need it more than I need it.’ But she always refused: I have always to fight with her to take my salary.

 

Sara:

After I finish my work for the big Madam, she told me I have to go with her to clean the house for her son. And she bring all the T-shirt, the chemise, the pantalon, up. And she tell me I have to iron it.

 

First month, I iron. Second month, I iron. Third month, really, I’m fed up. I didn’t iron. I leave the work, I leave the iron, I tell her ‘Madam, we have to talk.’ She told me ‘Why?’ I tell her, ‘Because this is not my work. Inside my contract I’m working one woman. So I’m not stupid. I know how to read this French. I don’t know what’s the contract you sign there in Arabic; me, I don’t care for that.’

 

Rose:

Whenever the employer will say that you are part of the family, don’t believe them. Because you are not, and you will never be a part of the family.

 

Sara:

Never.

 

Rose:

Because if you are part of the family, during mealtimes, you should be sitting with them, eating together. But you are not, you are excluded. You have to work, you have to serve them, and clean up everything, before you will sit and eat. So, why are you calling you’re a part of the family?

 

Sara:

They use that like a system to not pay the girls, and to make the girls cool down. To not asking her right. But you never ever part of their family. Never.

 

Rose:

They have to learn how to respect that we are here as workers, and we are not here like we are a threat for them. We are here to help them, and respect them, and also in return that they will respect us also.

 

We have many struggles in different issues, but we say we never give up. There is always hope for tomorrow, that it will come. I’m not just saying like there is hope, but we include that in our prayer also, that there will be real changes. This is not for us only, but this is for the whole, all the migrant domestic workers in Lebanon.

 

Sounds from the march. Whistles, shouting. Women singing: ‘On va débrouiller, débrouiller, jusqu’à la liberté!’ Fade out.