Lebanon’s Fight Against Trafficking: How One Judge’s Decision Could Help Preserve the Country’s Standing

[Antonia Mulvey is the Founder and Executive Director of Legal Action Worldwide

Terry Flyte is the Programme Manager for Lebanon and Syria at Legal Action Worldwide]

Over the past two decades, Lebanon has taken notable steps to address human trafficking occurring within its territory. In 2008, the country ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. It released a comprehensive national report on trafficking in 2008 and amended its penal code in 2011 to include “trafficking in persons.” Despite these actions, Lebanon has failed to adequately address trafficking in its most flagrant and entrenched form: the Kafala system, the visa sponsorship system that governs the lives of an estimated 250,000 migrant domestic workers (MDWs). A landmark criminal case filed by an Ethiopian MDW is now testing the country’s commitment to eliminating human trafficking. 

While Lebanon’s anti-trafficking legislation addresses slavery, this legal ground had never been used in a criminal complaint until Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) filed a landmark case on the instruction of Ethiopian migrant worker Meseret Hailu. Brought to Lebanon under false pretenses by a recruitment agency, Meseret’s experience was sadly all too familiar. At the airport, Lebanese authorities stripped her of her passport and gave it to her employer. She was confined to her employer’s home, where she was forced to work 12–15 hours a day without consistent days off.  She received no wages for the vast majority of her eight and a half years of employment, and endured verbal and physical abuse. Her employer controlled nearly every aspect of her life, effectively enslaving her. 

Article 164 of the Lebanese Penal Code defines trafficking broadly to include exploitation through force, deception, or abuse of power or vulnerability. It criminalizes slavery, forced labor, and practices similar to slavery, including debt bondage and servitude. The law imposes stringent penalties, ranging from five to fifteen years of imprisonment, which can be increased in cases involving minors or organised networks. While the law provides a potentially strong basis for prosecuting trafficking crimes, particularly those embedded in the Kafala system, Meseret’s case is the first ever in Lebanon to allege slavery and slave trading under domestic anti-trafficking law.

Meseret escaped from her employer in September 2019 and returned to Ethiopia with the assistance of lawyers at LAW. In October 2020, the criminal complaint was filed on her behalf accusing her former employer of slavery, slave trading, torture, and racial and gender discrimination. In addition to seeking prosecution, the complaint also demands financial compensation for Meseret for years of unpaid labour. Importantly, compensation was calculated based on a fair wage and not the meagre $150 a month that she was promised. The case also includes allegations of slave trading against the recruiter who facilitated Meseret’s employment in Lebanon, though the court has been unable to locate him for the purposes of prosecution.

Despite the gravity of the case, proceedings have been slow and progress incremental due to overlapping crises affecting the functioning of the judiciary. On 29 February 2024, the investigating judge questioned Meseret’s former employer in person – the first time that an employer in Lebanon has been required to appear in court to answer allegations of slavery and slave trading under threat of an arrest warrant. The judge then issued a summons for Meseret herself to appear in person for questioning. In July 2024, after repeated refusals to allow remote testimony by the victim or to accommodate her travel constraints, the investigation was prematurely closed by the investigating judge. However, after a year-long legal battle to uphold the victim’s right to participate, and following a recommendation from the Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor, the investigation was reopened in March 2025. On 27 May 2025, Meseret testified in person at the courthouse at Baabda Palace, marking a historic moment for victims of slavery in Lebanon and across the region.

“I’m here today not just to tell my story, but to speak the truth about what was done to me and to stand up for every migrant worker in Lebanon who has been silenced or abused.” 

Meseret Hailu, 27 May 2025 

Now, Meseret’s journey is at a critical juncture as the judge weighs the evidence before her and decides whether the case can proceed to full trial. The judge’s decision is significant not only for what it signifies in Meseret’s personal fight for justice, but also as a critical test of Lebanon’s willingness to enforce its anti-trafficking laws – an indicator closely watched by international actors. Watchdogs such as the U.S. State Department have consistently pointed to the Kafala system as an enabler of trafficking in Lebanon, mainly because MDWs remain outside the scope of labour protections and, for all practical purposes, are tied legally and economically to a single employer for the duration of their stay. The system has enabled widespread abuse by employers and recruiting agencies, ranging from enslavement and wage theft to abandonment, exacerbated alternately by COVID-19, economic collapse, and regional conflict.

As part of its global effort to monitor and combat human trafficking, the U.S. State Department publishes an annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, which ranks countries using a four-tier system:

• Tier 1: Countries that fully comply with the minimum standards outlined in the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) to eliminate human trafficking.
• Tier 2: Countries that do not completely meet the TVPA’s minimum standards but are actively working to meet them through significant efforts.
• Tier 2 Watch List: Countries that are taking some steps toward compliance but face serious concerns, such as a high number of trafficking victims, lack of progress compared to previous years, or insufficient evidence of sustained improvement.
• Tier 3: Countries that neither meet the minimum standards nor demonstrate meaningful efforts to do so.

Lebanon has fluctuated between Tier 2 and Tier 2 Watch List, with the most recent downgrading happening in 2023 and 2024. This reflects both the existence of serious trafficking concerns and the government’s failure to take meaningful action, particularly regarding MDWs under the Kafala system. It puts Lebanon in an alarming position because, under the TVPA, a country that has been on the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years will be automatically downgraded to Tier 3 unless a waiver is granted. Lebanon is at serious risk, therefore, of falling into Tier 3, which is reserved for countries doing nothing or showing no intent to improve. 

When it comes to enforcement of trafficking laws, it is hard to argue that Lebanon has demonstrated an intent to improve. Prosecutions of employers under the Kafala system in Lebanon remain vanishingly rare, despite widespread reports of abuse and exploitation. In 2010, a Lebanese employer was convicted of repeatedly beating a Sri Lankan worker but received just one month in prison. High-profile abuse cases like the death of Faustina Tay in 2020 and Alem Dechassa’s suicide in 2012 led to no criminal prosecutions, despite significant public outrage. In most cases, victims remain silent out of fear of deportation or detention, or because they justifiably believe that Lebanese authorities will side with their employers. None of the cases, other than Meseret’s, charge slavery and slave trading which characterize the kafala system. As the judge in Meseret’s case confronts head-on the impunity surrounding this system, her decision could mean the difference between minimal compliance or complete abandonment of anti-trafficking efforts. 

The judge’s decision in Meseret’s case therefore represents a watershed moment in Lebanon’s fight to eliminate human trafficking. It could determine whether the country’s institutions are prepared to move beyond rhetoric and deliver real justice. The case has already exposed the failings of a system that has overprotected employers and normalised the exploitation of MDWs. But it also offers an opportunity to change course. With the eyes of the world watching more closely than ever, the Lebanese judiciary’s response will signal whether it intends to take action to enforce anti-trafficking laws in a meaningful way, or whether it will continue to shield a system that enables some of the worst forms of trafficking. Meseret’s pursuit of justice is a test case for the entire country and for the region. Its outcome could determine Lebanon’s global standing, as well as the treatment of thousands of women still trapped within the Kafala system.

LAW is an independent non-profit organization of lawyers and jurists working on the front lines in fragile and conflict-affected areas. It empowers individuals and communities affected by human rights violations to seek justice and strengthens institutions to deliver it. Operating in Lebanon since 2018, LAW provides legal information, assistance, and representation to vulnerable groups of all nationalities—including women and girls, migrant domestic workers, stateless individuals, and LGBTQI persons. To date, over 13,000 people have received legal information, and around 3,500 have benefited from legal assistance and representation, with a 100% success rate in securing protection orders in sexual offence cases. LAW has also led landmark public interest litigation and historic reporting efforts, including the first comprehensive account of the 2020 Beirut port explosion and a groundbreaking report on gendered crimes during the Lebanese civil war.