Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Finally. Human Rights Watch has noticed. Finally. A press release on Lebanon that has nothing to do with the health and plight of right-wing lawyer Muhammad Al-Mughrabi who received an award from HRW (perhaps because he had supported the Israeli invasion of Lebanon back in 1982). "The high death toll of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, from unnatural causes, shows the urgent need to improve their working conditions, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the official steering committee tasked with improving the situation of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon to investigate the root causes of these deaths and develop a concrete national strategy to reduce them. Since January 2007, at least 95 migrant domestic workers have died in Lebanon. Of these 95 deaths, 40 are classified by the embassies of the migrants as suicide, while 24 others were caused by workers falling from high buildings, often while trying to escape their employers. By contrast, only 14 domestic workers died because of diseases or health issues." (thanks Nadim and Carhbel)