Emilie Lærke

When her employer started abusing her, she chose to escape from her employer and ran away to her recruitment agency. Instead of helping her, Doris Moraa's agent locked her in the bathroom. He had her passport, ensuring she couldn't return home to Kenya. Doris Moraa escaped in the middle of the night from the agency by jumping 8 meters from a gate that fenced in the agency.

Today, she lives in an apartment in Beirut with several other migrant women who have escaped from their employers due to bad experiences. Since October 2019 Lebanon have been struggling a financial crisis and government corruption. Currently, tensions between Hezbollah and Israel threaten to further destabilize the country.

Due to the situation in the country the conditions for the migrant workers has become worse.  Under the Kafala system, women from African and Asian countries are recruited to work as domestic helpers for Lebanese families. They hope for better economic opportunities but often end up working with  risk of verbal, physical, or sexual abuse.

The live of the migrant workers  are governed by the Kafala system, which exists in several Middle Eastern countries. The system ties their residence permits and legal status to the employer, often the same person they work and live with. The Kafala contract means that workers are not covered by Lebanon's labor laws, which regulate fundamental conditions such as minimum wage, vacation, and overtime.

When women realize that working as maid in Lebanon is not what the expected, many want to return home. But most of them have entered the country through traffickers that took both immigration papers and passports when they arrives to the country.