Migrant domestics in Lebanon deported for having children

Dozens of migrant domestic workers who have given birth in Lebanon are being detained, deported and denied residency renewals, a human rights charity said on Tuesday.
Lebanon has deported at least 21 domestic workers with children, many of them Sri Lankan, since the summer of 2016, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
The deportation figures come from Insan, a local human rights organization, that said none of the deported women had violated their visas by, for example, working with multiple employers.
“There is no rule that bans domestic workers from having children in Lebanon,” Roula Hamati, research and advocacy officer at Insan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Some of the women, who also include Ethiopians and Filipinos, are detained for two to three weeks before being deported, according to Hamati. In many cases both parents are migrant workers in Lebanon.
The General Directorate of General Security, Lebanon’s agency in charge of immigration, was not immediately available for comment.
In a statement to HRW on April 19, the agency said it “did not deport or send away any domestic worker with a child that she wanted to bring with her.” Some women told HRW by phone the deportations had interrupted their ability to work and their children’s schooling.
“I worked for people (in Lebanon) all my life, for 32 years. We worked, worked, me and my husband, to put our children through school, to pay money to educate them there, and they treat us like that?” Kumaria, whose name was changed by HRW for her protection, told the organization.

Source: Arab News