Vulnerability of Domestic Workers

3.2 Vulnerability of Domestic Workers

Domestic work—including house cleaning, cooking, and childcare—is often one of the few fields in which refugees are able to find work. In our analysis of refugees’ participation in domestic labor, we partnered with Dr. Ray Jureidini (formerly of the American University in Cairo, now with the American University of Beirut), who has published extensively on issues of domestic labor in Egypt and throughout the Arab world. We have also analyzed other publications on this topic and interviewed many domestic workers, particularly women. Service providers and refugee advocates we spoke with have also indicated that this group requires particular attention.

African Refugees: Eager to Work, At Risk for

Exploitation

Many African refugees—Sudanese, Somalis, Ethiopians and Eritreans—work in the informal economy. Women typically work as domestic servants, providing household cleaning and childcare. Men who are able to find work often find employment in the service sector as chauffeurs, deliverymen or gardeners. Somali and Sudanese women, in particular, have had consistent success in finding employment as domestic workers in private homes. Accurate statistics do not exist regarding the number of domestic workers in Cairo. But it is believed that for thousands of refugees in Cairo, domestic work is the only type of employment available, and it has proven to be a crucial source of income for their survival. Virtually every African refugee woman we spoke with worked as a domestic worker or baby- sitter in an Egyptian household, as there is high demand among middle- and upper-middle class Egyptian women for domestic workers. However, pay is typically inadequate and insecure. Domestic workers are not legally considered “workers” and thus are not protected by Egyptian labor laws, nor are their contracts valid legal documents.

In a survey of 633 foreign-born domestic workers in Cairo conducted by Jureidini (2009), 10 per cent of interviewees complained of sexual harassment, including rape, inappropriate touching and demand for sexual favors. Those who tried to refuse were fired or threatened with firing. One interviewee said: “The husband comes to my room every night for sex. I can’t say no because he gives

me money and helps me with many things” (Jureidini 2009: 87). Based on his research, Jureidini found that male employers were often the perpetrators of sexual harassment. However, because of the shame associated with the abuse and the lack of legal protections in place for domestic workers generally, abuse is rarely reported.

Abused refugees have little recourse in terms of getting protection from the Egyptian legal system. While interviewing a female family physician working with African refugee women we heard a story about a Sudanese domestic worker who was raped by her employer in a dark courtyard. Distressed by the situation she ran into the street and a passer-by, a male doctor, summoned the police to help the victimized woman. When the police arrived they said that in order to make a credible claim the victim would have to have an affidavit signed by a medical doctor. The passer-by offered to attest to what he saw—after all he was

a doctor—but the police told him that the affidavit had to be issued by a doctor who works for the police to be credible. Obviously, there was no such doctor in the street. The police told the woman to go home. In her case, “home” was the house of the rapist since she was a live-in housekeeper.

In addition to sexual harassment and sexual exploitation, domestic workers faced other forms of abuse. When she

first arrived in Cairo, Salima, 8 a young Sudanese woman, worked as a housekeeper for an Egyptian family. The lady of the house took her passport and would not return it when Salima needed the passport to register with UNHCR- Egypt. Only after Salima waived her salary, the Egyptian employer returned the passport. Salima eventually quit, having become ill from working long hours with only one meal a day. Our research assistants told us other accounts of employers strip-searching their domestic employees whenever they were suspected of theft.

Refugee men also work in the informal economy, though there is less demand for their labor and subsequently many find it difficult to get hired. Based on group interviews conducted by our research assistants at Refuge Egypt, many Sudanese men reported working as chauffeurs, running small errands for employers or working as deliverymen. Though some of these men reported good

8 Pseudonyms have been used to protect the anonymity of interviewees.

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