Using a Facebook group dedicated to selling and buying products in the country, a Lebanese young man attempted to “sell” the housekeeper working in his house for $1000 drawing lots of criticism to what has been known as “modern-day slavery”.
@WaelJerro of Beirut participates in #Lebanon's Facebook human slave trade.
— This Is Lebanon (@ThisIsLebanonLB) April 20, 2020
"African domestic worker for sale (Nigerian) with new residency permit and complete legal papers. 30 years old. Active and very clean."
Peace U Fuoma Busari of Nigeria is being dehumanized #AbolishKafala pic.twitter.com/34vR3Sw7h4
The Lebanese “seller” attached a photocopy of the housekeeper’s passport and captioned it with an “offer to sell her” for $1000. In his post, he mentioned that “she’s African” and then added her country of origin’s name; Nigeria between brackets.
The post concluded with the words: “She has valid paperwork that was issued recently. She’s 30 years old, active, and very clean.”
Social media users both Nigerian and Lebanese took to Twitter to protest the content of the post and how it represents some people’s racist attitudes towards domestic workers, calling it “modern-day slavery.”
The post’s creator was reportedly arrested last Thursday and will be facing human trafficking charges.
According to Human Rights Watch, the number of foreign domestic workers in Lebanon is estimated to 250k, most of whom come from African and East Asian countries.
Several labor organizations have been drawing attention to worsening living conditions suffered by those workers, due to racist attitudes and deteriorating economic conditions in the country; forcing many of them to work for longer hours and slashed salaries.
