“Duped”

A Madagascar woman explains how she became a maid in Lebanon:

Ms Baholiarisoa says she was trapped in “a living hell” after being duped into going to Lebanon. A recruiting agency had promised her a nursing job for three years, with a salary of $800 (£486) a month.

But her dream was shattered the minute she touched down in Beirut. “It was a trap, because as soon as I got there they took away my papers and said my contract didn’t mean anything,” Ms Baholiarisoa says. “They said, ‘Abeline, this is null and void.’ For the next 15 years they shattered my life and the lives of my children.”

And by “they” she means the Sureté Generale at the Airport, ie the Lebanese government, not the mafia which brought her to Lebanon.

This story matters because many Lebanese apologists for cheap foreign labor argue that the workers are doing the job of their own free will. They say that it’s their best economic option, because although the job doesn’t pay much, it’s much better than anything else they can get in their countries.

Now we know this is not true. The woman working in your house could very well have been duped into doing this..