The show featured a 5 minute act where a couple was “negotiating” with a representative of a recruitment agency for a migrant domestic worker. The couple became aggressive and sexually explicit to the point where the recruitment agency representative responded to the couple: “Do you think that I am a pimp? I run a workers recruitment agency here!”. The “couple” then asks for a dirty maid, peeing unwillingly and smelling, and hitting children. The “husband” at the end of the video suggested to the recruiter “to shove up his *** the broomstick that their last maid had used before she jumped from the balcony”. At that point, when we understood that the couple are upset because of the suicide of their maid, the couple’s sudden unwarranted slurs and foul language are covered by a long sequences of “beeping”!

This is not MTV’s first time racist shows. MTV’s odious, unethical and immoral show comes at a time when Lebanese and international media keep reporting on the trafficking and slavery of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon.

You can read here Ethiopian Suicides’ take with some social media comments reproduced in the post.

And you can read here Anti Racism Movement’s commentary.

As for the video itself, you can view it on this link. Do read the comments under it. [UPDATE February 9, 2012: the original video and the original comments were removed and the link was changed to another source].

This news came just one day before the Guardian published a report about Lila, a Nepalese who was trafficked into slavery and committed suicide in Lebanon.

Originally posted on Ethiopian Suicides.

Please watch and share this video widely. Special thanks to Farah Salka from the Anti Racism Movement for her assistance.

To understand the severity of the situation, you can follow @MigrantRights on Twitter, which contains constant updates of migrant rights abuses in the region as well as this page on CrowdVoice:

It is important to always remember that the situation of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon is severely in crisis not just because of the non-existent labour rights for them but also because of rampant levels of racism.

A blogger reports about this ad here here.

The Cost of Living from Pete Pattisson on Vimeo.

Each year tens of thousands of Nepalis migrate to the Middle East in search of work, but a growing number are making the ultimate sacrifice for their attempts to make a better life for themselves and their families. Each day at least one or two coffins arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, containing the bodies of Nepalis who have died while working in the Middle East.

We have already blogged about how the Gulf is becoming a death trap for Nepali migrants. Stress and dangerous working conditions appear to be the leading cause of death for Nepali migrant labourers, and 800 lost their lives in the Gulf and Malaysia in 2010 alone, according to data compiled by Nepali embassies. However, given the high rate of undocumented/illegal migration, the real figure may be even higher.

Below are the English translation of the video:

Investigator: What happened with you?
Maid: Madam hit me!
I: Show us your hands and arms! (She shows an old unhealed broken elbow).
M: She hit me with the hammer, hit me with the knife, and seared me with the iron.
I: Who did that to you?
M: Madam!
I: Madam who?
M: Niveen.
I: What is the name of her husband?
M: Samer Al-Masri.
I: Samer Al-Masri, the actor?!
M: Yes!
I: Can you show us your back? Turn around please! (The maid turns around to show bruises, wounds, haematoma, and pierces on many parts of her back).
M: She kicked me with her boots.
I: Did you receive your money?
M: No!
I: How long have you worked for them?
M: 3 years without wage.
I: Is there any pierce in your stomach or chest?!
M: In my head. She used to push my head in the wall. And also cut my teeth.

The first report includes interviews with families of deceased Filipino domestic workers. It includes an interview with family members of an abused maid in Jordan who was not given her salary and forbidden to contact her family for two years. Her autopsy report ruled that she died of natural causes. Another interview is with family members of Romilyn Eroy-Ybañez, who was brutally murdered in her sponsor’s house in Saudi Arabia this September.

The second report discusses the difficulties the Philippine government is having when trying to protect its workers overseas. The report mentions that Filipino workers are willing to take the huge risk of being abused and killed in the Middle East in order to provide for their families back home.