Life for Lebanon’s migrant domestic workers worsens amid crisis

Hardly anyone in Lebanon has been left unscathed by the economic crisis, the worst since the end of the civil war in 1990. Its impact has been most devastating on communities already marginalized prior to the crisis. The situation for the estimated 250,000 migrant domestic workers, for instance, who are excluded from labor law protections, has gone from bad to worse. Prior to the economic crisis, individuals and businesses used US dollars and Lebanese lira interchangeably at the official exchange rate of LL1,515 to the dollar. But as economic growth stalled, and remittances from the Lebanese diaspora decreased (dropping by 7 percent in 2017), dollars became increasingly scarce. Banks introduced informal capital controls, restricting the dollars people can withdraw or transfer abroad. As a result, the value of Lebanese lira has dropped by almost 40 percent in the unofficial market since October 2019, and the price of imported goods has