Collage by Jaimee Lee Haddad
You’ve heard the word kafala — in the news, in protest chants, in videos of domestic workers locked on balconies or pleading outside embassies.
This week, something historic happened.
For the first time in Lebanon, a migrant domestic worker testified in a court case classified as slavery.
Her name is Meseret Hailu. Her story could mark a turning point — but to understand why, we need to look at the system that made it possible, Kafala.
1. What is the trial that broke new ground?
After working in Lebanon for nearly seven years without pay, Ethiopian worker Meseret Hailu filed a lawsuit in 2020, accusing her former employer of slavery and the recruitment agency of slave trafficking.
On May 27, 2025, she returned to Beirut for 48 hours, thanks to a visa arranged by the NGO Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), to confront her former employer in a Baabda courthouse.
She described years of abuse:
- Locked in the house with no contact with her family
- Passport confiscated
- Verbally and physically assaulted
- Threatened with a knife
- Forced to work nearly seven years without pay or a day off
“I’m here to tell the truth,” she told the judge. “For me, and for all the migrant workers in Lebanon who were silenced.”
2. What is the Kafala system that allowed this?
Meseret’s story is not unique. It’s a product of the Kafala (Arabic for sponsorship) system, which governs the lives of over 250,000 migrant domestic workers in Lebanon.
The Kafala system originated in the 1950s in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman – as a way to utilize foreign labor for large-scale infrastructure projects during the post-oil boom. It was also adopted by Lebanon and Jordan.
In Lebanon, domestic work wasn’t always done by migrant workers. Originally, it was Lebanese women who took these jobs. However, widespread abuse, combined with the fact that domestic work (drivers, cooks, cleaners among others) is excluded from Lebanon’s Labor Code, pushed them out of the sector. Syrian women were hired next, but they also stopped accepting jobs for similar reasons.
By the 1980s, recruitment agencies began systematically bringing in African and Asian women to fill the gap, which locked in the structure we now know as the Kafala system.
Domestic workers contracted under Kafala come mainly from Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, as well as West Africa among other countries.
Under Kafala:
- Your employer becomes your legal guardian.
- You can’t change jobs without their approval.
- If you leave your job, you lose your legal status and you can go to jail
The system is widely denounced by human rights groups as a form of modern-day slavery.
3. What attempts at reform have been made?
In September 2020, then-Labor Minister Lamia Yammine introduced a new unified contract for domestic workers. This followed efforts made by her predecessor, Camille Abu Sleiman, who had been pushing in this direction with civil society and rights organizations as well as media groups, including L’Orient-Le Jour.
It was hailed as a "giant step" toward dismantling Kafala.
The contract promised rights that most workers take for granted:
- A weekly rest day
- Paid annual leave
- The right to keep your passport and documents
- Freedom of movement
- The ability to terminate a contract in cases of abuse
- The employer’s rights were also addressed.
The new contract, backed by the International Labour Organization, aligned with international standards and was the first to recognize domestic work as real work.
By then, Lebanon had plunged into economic collapse.
The 2019 financial crisis, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, left many employers unable (or unwilling) to pay wages.
Migrant workers were abandoned, unpaid and trapped without legal status, with many reporting being sexually abused.
Videos of domestic workers being dumped at embassies or sleeping in the street shocked the public and made headlines worldwide. There were also reports of suicide cases, with several workers dying from falling from balconies.
But here’s the catch:
The contract was never integrated into the Lebanese Labor Code. In fact, Article 7 of the Code explicitly excludes migrant domestic workers from its protections.
When challenged, the Shura Council, Lebanon’s top administrative court, sided with the Syndicate of owners of recruitment agencies (close to political parties, namely Hezbollah and Amal), responsible for bringing in workers. Without legal enforcement, the reform remained largely symbolic.
Despite this setback, civil society groups and international organizations continue to advocate for the full abolition of the Kafala system.
4. So... what now?
Meseret’s case is still unfolding. The judge will decide within weeks whether to proceed with an indictment. If the judge issues an indictment, it could mark Lebanon’s first slavery trial, a precedent with potential ripple effects for other migrant workers. It would also add momentum to broader calls for abolishing the Kafala system, not just in Lebanon but across the region.
Some Gulf countries have already begun reforming the system, with Qatar scrapping exit permits and allowing workers to change jobs without employer consent.
Saudi Arabia introduced similar reforms in 2021, though they excluded key groups like drivers and domestic workers, drawing criticism from rights groups.
