HRW Release of Sri Lankan Migrant Worker Report

Human Rights Watch Press Release:

“Sri Lanka: Migrant Women Face Serious Abuse
Domestic Workers in the Middle East Exposed to Violence, Exploitation

… The 131-page report, “Exported and Exposed: Abuses Against Sri Lankan
Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab
Emirates,” documents the serious abuses that domestic workers face at
every step of the migration process. It also shows how the Sri Lankan
government and governments in the Middle East fail to protect these
women. The report is based on 170 interviews with domestic workers,
government officials, and labor recruiters conducted in Sri Lanka and in
the Middle East.

To view the Human Rights Watch report, “Exported and Exposed: Abuses
Against Sri Lankan Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon,
and the United Arab Emirates,” please visit:
http://hrw.org/reports/2007/srilanka1107/ (The summary and
recommendations of the report are available in Arabic, Sinhala and
Tamil)…”

“Beur is Beautiful”

Last weekend, I went to the first part of a 2-day conference devoted to “Maghrebi-French” filmmaking. Co-sponsored by Alliance Française and Arte East, the event is timely and perhaps overdue given the political tensions in France toward its North African immigrant population.