In Lebanon, a country facing widespread destruction and displacement caused by the conflict with Israel, migrant caregivers are among the most vulnerable populations.
Bram Frouws, director of the Mixed Migration Centre, highlighted the significant vulnerability of migrant care workers in Lebanon amid the ongoing conflict.
“Since the escalation of the war began, many employers fled the country or fled north, and left their migrant workers without pay, shelter, or food, and many were left stranded,” he said. “Many migrant workers have now been left sleeping on the streets, with no access to basic necessities or humanitarian aid. Shelters often only permit entry for Lebanese citizens.”
The immigration status of migrant workers in Lebanon is tied to the individual employer, Frouws explained, which opens up Lebanon’s 175,000 migrant workers to exploitation and abuse even during peacetime. Now, that vulnerability has been amplified.
2 View gallery
Displaced Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians are hosted at the UNRWA Siblin Training Centre near Sidon, Lebanon, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.
(Photo: Yara Nardi/Reuters )
Many of these migrant workers don’t have access to their passports, which are held by the employers. “Lacking financial resources and documentation really makes it near impossible to escape,” Frouws said. Language barriers, restricted mobility, limited social networks, and discrimination all exacerbate the situation.
Frouws expressed concern that migrant workers are being left out of government and humanitarian responses to the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. “This is often the case with migrants who are caught up in a sudden conflict,” he said.
October 29 marks the International Day of Care and Support, a day dedicated to recognizing and raising awareness about the vital role of caregivers. The UN established the day to spark conversations about the importance of care work, both paid and unpaid, which serves as the backbone of society and ensures that individuals and systems can thrive and function smoothly. Those conversations have a special significance in the Middle East, which relies heavily on migrant domestic workers to provide care to elderly and disabled individuals.
Despite the critical contributions of migrant caregivers in Middle Eastern households, most still face unfair and unsafe working conditions, including long hours, minimal rest time, and vulnerability to exploitation. Legal protections and social safeguards for these caregivers are often inadequate or poorly enforced.
Home care in Israel is also heavily dependent on foreign workers. As of the end of 2023, more than 75,000 foreign caregivers were working in Israel, according to data from the Population and Immigration Authority. The caregivers come from a diverse range of countries, with the largest groups hailing from the Philippines (26,673), India (19,924), and Uzbekistan (12,335). Many also come from Moldova, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine. About 60,000 of the workers have documents to work in Israel, and the other 15,000 do not.
Meytal Russo, deputy executive director of Kav LaOved, an Israeli nonprofit dedicated to securing equal labor rights for all workers, explains that foreign caregivers in Israel face a complex and challenging bureaucracy.
“About 95% to 99% are coming with legal documentation, allowing them to stay here for five years and three months,” Russo said. That period applies to all foreign workers, but caregivers can apply to extend their stay to continue to serve the same elderly or disabled patient they had been caring for.
“There is a lot of bureaucracy involved in that,” Russo said.
“Caregivers are required to be available 24 hours a day, six days a week and are obliged to stay at the patient’s home,” she said. These workers receive only minimum wage without overtime pay and are excluded from the law mandating breaks. “This exclusion stems from a Supreme Court decision that ruled it is impossible to quantify a caregiver’s rest time due to the nature of their work,” Russo explained.
She also raised concerns about the high brokerage fees paid by caregivers to come to Israel.
“Many workers pay between $7,000 and $30,000 in fees, creating significant financial burdens,” she said, noting that most workers still rely on private work placement agencies despite government attempts to regulate the process through bilateral agreements. “The situation remains business to business, with undocumented payments being made to private agencies abroad and sometimes to agencies within Israel.”
The vast majority of migrant caregivers in Israel are women, and these female caregivers face substantial risks of sexual harassment and assault, Russo said. Often the perpetrator is a patient with dementia or one of the patient’s family members. “The vulnerability of a migrant woman working in a home is very high,” Russo explained.
Physical demands of the work also add to caregivers’ challenges, with many experiencing orthopedic issues due to heavy lifting and inadequate professional support. Living in a patient’s private home and developing a relationship with the patient and the family can also be challenging. “There is a wide spectrum, with some very good relationships and others that are quite bad,” Russo said.
All these challenges can lead migrant caregivers to experience burnout. “If you are burnt out in a regular job, you can find another one,” Russo said. “But here, you’re tied to the same employer, which creates a dangerous situation for both the caregiver and the patient.”
Migrant caregiving is especially widespread in Gulf Cooperation Council countries. According to Migrant-Rights.org, a GCC-based advocacy organization focused on advancing migrant workers’ rights, over 90% of Kuwaiti households employ migrant domestic workers. The 620,000 migrant domestic workers in Kuwait represent more than 22% of the country’s total workforce. These workers often face significant disparities in wages and working conditions.
In Bahrain, migrant domestic workers account for 10% of the entire workforce and 37% of the female workforce. Migrant workers dominate the domestic work sector in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, making up 95% of all domestic workers and personal assistants. About 20% of all foreign workers in the UAE perform domestic work.
Around 96% of Emirati families hire domestic workers to care for their children. These 750,000 or so workers perform an estimated 80% of parental duties, outnumbering family members in 22% of Emirati households. Domestic workers constitute about 20% of the total expatriate workforce in the country.
Domestic workers in Saudi Arabia face particularly long hours, averaging 63.7 hours per week – the second-highest rate globally. Similarly, in Qatar, domestic workers average 60 hours of work per week.
Wages remain a significant issue for migrant domestic workers. In Qatar, domestic workers earn less than 30% of the average national wage, while in Kuwait, their earnings are under 30% of the average national wage. The minimum monthly wage for domestic workers in Kuwait is $147, but enforcement mechanisms to guarantee this payment are insufficient. In Saudi Arabia, domestic workers from Sri Lanka earn just 20% of the private sector’s minimum wage, receiving approximately $80-$100 per month.
Santhosh, a 35-year-old caregiver from India, came to Israel last year. “My patient is in very good condition and very supportive to me, so I am happy to be here,” he said. But he quietly added that he found the relentless nature of the job and the distance from his family to be challenging.
“It’s very lonely,” Santhosh said. “Facebook and WhatsApp help, but I miss my family. I feel a constant loneliness.” Despite the difficulty, he expressed a sense of determination. “I want to continue working, and I’m grateful for the opportunity,” he said.
For a caregiver from the Philippines who asked to remain anonymous, the hardest part of the job is the emotional isolation. “I was prepared for hard work, and I do it to support my family,” she said. “But here, I became very lonely.”
“I feel like my whole life is online, and the rest is just me working. Nothing else,” she said.
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: