LEBANON: 'Clear pattern' of migrant-worker deaths alarms rights advocates

On Oct. 21, 26-year-old Zeditu Kebede Matente of Ethiopia was found dead, hanging from an olive tree in the southern Lebanese town of Haris.

Just two days later, her compatriot, 30-year-old Saneet Mariam, died after falling from the balcony of her employer’s house in Mastita, just north of Beirut.

It's been a deadly month for women working as domestic laborers in Lebanon. At least six have died under mysterious circumstances, constituting a "clear pattern that cannot be ignored," Human Rights Watch researcher Nadim Houry told the Daily Star recently.

JORDAN: Indonesia to sue doctor for dumping sick maid outside a hospital

The Indonesian Embassy in Amman intends to sue a Jordanian doctor for allegedly abusing an Indonesian domestic worker at his home and then abandoning her outside a medical facility after she became ill with tuberculosis, the Jordan Times reported today.

Indonesian deputy envoy to Jordan Ari Wardhana told the paper that the victim, identified only as "Aminah," had not only been abused by her employer and his family, but also had been forced to work without pay since she arrived in Jordan in 2008.

“We are currently collecting information from the girl to file a lawsuit against the doctor," Wardhana said.

“We will take this matter to the Jordanian government," he added. "She is a human being and should have been treated in a better way."

Ahmad Armouti, president of the Jordan Medical Assn., said his organization will investigate the doctor, who has so far gone unnamed.

EGYPT: Textile workers go on hunger strike

Unlike other Muslims in Egypt, six workers at  Indorama Textiles Co. don't look forward to sunset during Ramadan so they can eat after more than 12 hours of fasting. 

They are on a weeklong hunger strike.

The workers are carrying out the strike in a university hospital in Menoufeya after, they said, they were "abusively sacked and suspended" by the company's board of administrators.

They announced that they won't end their hunger strike until they either die or get back their jobs.

QATAR: Public outrage rises with demand for Saudi maids

Residents of Qatar are outraged over media reports that 30 Saudi women have had to work in the same “humiliating” conditions that were formerly deemed acceptable only for foreign migrant workers.

The women, ages 20 to 45, arrived in Qatar to be placed with families as maids, earning about $400 per month, slightly more than their mostly Asian and African counterparts, according to the Middle East and North Africa Financial Network (MENAFN).

One maids agency told newspapers that the demand for Saudi women had gone up sharply due to widespread fears that foreign maids practiced magic.

LEBANON: Clubs ban African, Asian maids from swimming pools

 Seventeen out of Lebanon's 30 or so beach clubs do not allow migrant guest workers from Asia and Africa in their swimming pools, and some even deny them entrance outright, Human Rights Watch researcher Nadim Houry told Maysam Ali of the news website Now Lebanon last week.

Houry's comments come at the height of Lebanon's oppressive summer heat, when locals and tourists alike flood the beaches and pools seeking relief from the blazing sun and humidity.

Lebanon is regularly criticized for its human rights record regarding  migrant guest workers, mostly women from the Philippines and East Africa who work as maids and nannies for Lebanese families.

IRAN: Ahmadinejad cuts wages raised before election

Tens of thousands of Iranians were in for a shock in recent days when they got their paychecks and found their wages had dropped back to the same level as before election season.

After boosting the salaries of government employees and retirees for two months in the run-up to the June 12 elections -- in what critics decried as a naked attempt at vote-buying --  the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has slashed wages again.

According to a report Sunday by the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency, wages for retired army personnel have been cut by $100 to $250 per month. Hamshahri, a daily newspaper run by Tehran's mayor, put the decreases at $60 to $200 per month.

That's no small change in a country where civil servants and retirees typically live off a  few hundred dollars a month and inflation continues to eat into people's standard of living.

The salary cuts also have hit other public service employees, who were lavished with praise and bonuses in the weeks before the election. 

One schoolteacher, speaking on condition of anonymity, said her salary was increased from $370 to $540 two months before the election. When she looked at her paycheck at the end of the Persian month of Tir several days ago, she discovered it was back down to the same as before the election.

Many considered the salary increases long-overdue adjustments for inflation.

-- Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: Retirees in a park in Iran. Credit: Hooshang Hadi / Iranian Labor News Agency

DUBAI: Police announce arrests of thousands of pimps, prostitutes

In a city-state that imports most of its human capital, from upper management to unskilled labor, it's no surprise that sex trafficking and forced prostitution have also flourished alongside (and sometimes inside) Dubai's luxury hotels and glittering skyscrapers.

In December 2007, however, the Dubai police responded by raiding two dozen brothels and detaining hundreds of suspects in the biggest prostitution sting to date.

At the time, Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim told the Associated Press that the Dubai government had "declared war on human trafficking."

Since then, police in Dubai have arrested 2,713 sex workers and 107 female pimps as part of an ongoing campaign against vice, according to a recent report in the Saudi-based Arab News.

EGYPT: A protest with low turnout

Despite a call for a national strike, Cairo's streets Monday were as busy as they usually are on weekdays, with workers heading to their jobs and offices and students heading to their universities. Yet dozens of riot police cars were stationed in downtown Cairo, reflecting a high sense of alert on the part of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

Barely one hundred demonstrators gathered in downtown Cairo, heeding opposition calls to make April 6 “a day of anger” nationwide in protest of poor economic conditions and political stagnation.

“I am not disappointed or desperate; the pursuit of the struggle will bear fruit one day. Change does not happen overnight, it requires accumulative work,” George Ishak, a leader of the Kefaya protest movement  told the Los Angeles Times on the sidelines of the demonstration.

LEBANON: Philippine maids just want to go home

Roxanne Beroda has been working as a housekeeper in Lebanon for nine years, enduring long hours and even longer periods of separation from her three children as she worked to pay for their education back in the Philippines. 

She has not seen her family in more than two years, and she may have to wait even longer if the current ban on sending Philippine workers to Lebanon is upheld. 

“It’s very hard, especially for me because today is my daughter's high school graduation,” she said. “I wanted to go [back to the Philippines], but I’m afraid I can’t come back [to Lebanon], that’s why I cannot go.”

The Philippine government is considering lifting the three-year ban in an effort to provide more job opportunities.

But the move has received mixed reactions from workers who resent the travel restrictions and advocacy groups concerned with their safety. 

Although the ban was originally prompted by safety concerns stemming from Israel's summer 2006 war with Hezbollah, it has prevented many Philippine workers, both legal and illegal, from visiting home out of fear they will not be allowed to return to Lebanon. 

Some advocacy groups also have come out against the measure, citing Lebanon’s political instability and widespread worker abuse at the hands of employers. 

EGYPT: A new call for national strike

Despite the Egyptian government's violent reaction last year, a group of young activists has renewed its call for a national strike next month to protest inflation,  corruption and political repression.

The opposition group calling itself the April 6 Youth Movement has called for a strike on April 6, the same day a similar call was made last year that culminated in a riot in a Delta province in which one person was killed and about 100 wounded.

The strike call was reportedly endorsed by a number of opposition parties, including the well-known Kefaya group.

Although the group's call was not heeded by significant number of Egyptians last year, it sent shock waves across the country and damaged the reputation of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

Online technology played a significant role in spreading the word; the message was propagated through  Facebook and scores of blogs. This time, opposition groups have relied on the same tools. 

The statement circulated online read: