According to the International Labor Organization, Lebanon hosts more than 250,000 female migrant domestic workers; the majority of them come from Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, the Philippines and Bangladesh to work as housemaids.
Rights groups have protested that employers often deny payment, lock workers in their homes and seize their passports, among other abuses.
The severe living conditions have led some migrant workers to commit suicide. Others have died or been seriously wounded while trying to escape their employers’ homes.
In 2008, Human Rights Watch registered one migrant domestic worker death per week from unnatural causes, including suicide.