‘Every day I cry’: 50 women talk about life as a domestic worker under the Gulf’s kafala system

A former domestic worker in Beirut, who was not among the women interviewed for this article. About 250,000 African and Asian migrants work in Lebanon, and an average of two domestic workers a week die there. Illustration: Getty/Guardian picture desk

Condemned as dangerous and abusive, the kafala labour system not only disregards migrant workers’ rights but depends on exploitation. But 10 years after Qatar was advised by the UN to abolish kafala (“sponsorship”) entirely and replace it with a regulated labour network, the system is thriving across Lebanon, Jordan and the Gulf states – with the region’s most vulnerable migrants hidden behind closed doors.

Over two years, the Guardian spoke to 50 women who are or were domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar or Jordan. Their testimony reveals a section of society operating under appalling conditions facilitated by the state’s employment apparatus.