EXCERPT FROM INTRODUCTION:

“This report examines the processes and practices involved in the recruitment of migrant domestic workers (MDWs) from Nepal and Bangladesh and explores their work and living conditions in Lebanon. MDWs began entering the Lebanese labour market in the mid-1970s, the influx creating a new labour market that was, and still is, managed by private placement agencies. The Lebanese government did not play a major role in the emergence of this lucrative market, nor did it pro-actively regulate it.It was no more than a witness to the expansion and propagation of this sector, and its consent came as merely as a reaction to its development. Private recruitment agencies in countries of origin and placement agencies in countries of destination are in charge of providing the necessary information and providing the matching services which link the requirements of the employer with the profile of the potential migrant worker, while also sorting out logistical arrangements to facilitate the migration process. Within such a context, the rights of the workers in the country of destination depend, to a large extent, on whether there are any deficiencies in the framework regulating the migration process. This is what this report has set out to explore.”