Maids in Lebanon dying every week - rights group - Reuters - August 26, 2008

Lebanon must improve working conditions for migrant domestic workers, who often commit suicide or die while trying to escape from their employers, a U.S.-based rights group said on Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch said there were an estimated 200,000 such workers in Lebanon, including those with illegal status, mostly from Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Ethiopia.

Out of about 95 foreign housemaids who died in Lebanon since Jan. 2007, 40 deaths were classified by their embassies as suicides and 24 as workers falling from high buildings, often trying to escape their employers, it said in a statement. "Domestic workers are dying in Lebanon at a rate of more than one per week," said Nadim Houry, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. Read More.