As if the situation wasn’t bad enough for domestic workers in Lebanon, the Lebanese authorities are in the process of passing a law that prohibits workers from having any type of relationships in Lebanon or marrying a non-Lebanese here. If they do so, the tenant can report them and have them deported as mentioned in the Legal-Agenda article and on Kafa’s Facebook page.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
خلال شهر تشرين الاول من العام 2014، تلقى كتاب العدل من وزارة العدل تعميما بشأن التعهد الذي يفترض بصاحب العمل توقيعه لديهم في اطار الحصول على اقامة للعاملة أو تجديدها. وبموجبه، يطلب من صاحب العمل أن يتعهد تجاه المديرية العامة بعدم وجود “أي علاقة زواج أو ارتباط من أي نوع كان تربط العاملة (…) باي شخص عربي او أجنبي مقيم على الاراضي اللبنانية”. كما يتعهد أنه “في حال تبين لاحقا وجود اي علاقة زواج حصلت بعددخول العاملة مراجعة الامن العام بعد تأمين تذكرة سفر بغية ترحيلها الى بلدها”
This is the first time I hear about this law and I can’t really confirm it yet. If it’s true, I don’t know what they are trying to achieve by implementing it as it’s against the most basic human rights and is wrong. We should be working on changing this rotten Kafala system instead of passing laws that enslave the workers even further.
isnt everything in Leb the opposite ???
i am studying in the UK and I am not allowed to get married too :p I should go back to Lebanon then apply for another type of visa to be able to get married in London.
Omar, you have restrictions but you can do so. And we should also remember that this only applies to “migrant workers” which is a racist category that doesn’t apply to Europeans and Westerners in Lebanon. I’m sure that if a French couple gets married in Lebanon, our government wouldn’t be considering making it illegal.