It's not like we needed a report to validate the claim that domestic workers are exploited. But now that the claim is backed by numbers, there is proof that the working conditions of migrant domestic workers are still sinking. In fact, migrant domestic workers are among the most exploited group in the world.

In a report titled "Time To Care: Unpaid and underpaid care work and the global inequality crisis" published by Oxfam on Monday, it was revealed that just 10 percent of domestic workers around the world have equal protection in labor law compared with other workers. In addition to that, around half of them actually lack minimum wage protection. It is also estimated that the 3.4 million domestic workers in forced labor worldwide are "being robbed" of $8 billion every year as their employers often deprive them of the money they earned. 

The report specifically highlights the horrible kafala system that is in place in Middle Eastern countries. The system has long been criticized by human rights organizations which have described it as modern-day slavery. 

Under it, domestic workers are often treated like slaves, denied their most basic rights (such as the ability to travel or change jobs), and subjected to abuse and racism. Some workers are even "sold" online, others are locked up in their homes. An undercover investigation by BBC News Arabic in 2019 shed light on the former, highlighting the presence of an online black market of human slavery in Arab countries. 

The kafala system is essentially an abusive sponsorship system that legally binds the worker to their employer. Hence, the labor laws of the respective country are brushed aside while employment contracts by racist agencies take their place. 

Employers in the Arab world often confiscate workers' passports, although this is technically illegal in most countries. Workers are routinely forced to work extremely long hours with little, if any, days off. For example, domestic workers in Saudi Arabia work an average of 63.7 hours per week, the second-highest estimate worldwide, according to a 2017 report by the International Trade Union Confederation. 

On top of it all, the workers have few legal protections. Suicide rates among migrant domestic workers in various Arab countries are alarming. Still, workers are subject to inhumane working conditions and no one is doing anything about it. 

As pointed out in the report, 80 percent of the estimated 67 million domestic workers worldwide are women. Hence, these workers are marginalized on various fronts. Their struggles are intersectional as their gender, race, ethnicity, and class put them at a disadvantage in the vile society we live in. 

The fair treatment of migrant domestic workers in the region (and abroad) is unattainable for as long as the kafala system is in place. Equal and just treatment won't happen unless the kafala system, in its entirety, is abolished. 

Considering the report focuses on "global inequality," it makes sense to see the topic of migrant domestic workers take ground. The report also highlighted the status of things between the rich and the poor, thanks to biased economic systems. 

To put things in perspective, Oxfam compared numbers and revealed that 22 of the richest men in the world have more combined wealth than all 325 million women in Africa. 

"When 22 men have more wealth than all the women in Africa combined, it's clear that our economy is just plain sexist," said Oxfam GB's chief executive, Danny Sriskandarajah.

Many of the migrant domestic workers who come to the Arab world are either from African or Asia, yet some employers still deny the workers the money they most probably came to earn and send back home. But even that's not a default right due to the lack of proper labor laws in the space. 

Lebanon has been in a state of financial crisis for some time now. When the protests began over three months ago on Oct. 17, the country had been already reeling under debt estimated at around $86 billion or more than 150 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The country witnessed a political stalemate that pushed it further into debt, with an economic crisis considered one of the deepest financial ditches the country has fallen into since the 1975 civil war.

Private hospitals alone, accounting to 82 percent of Lebanon's healthcare capacity, have not seen a single dime from the Finance Ministry since the beginning of 2019, long before the revolution erupted.

In fact, the ministry has not paid private hospitals an estimated $1.3 billion in dues since 2011, head of the Syndicate of Private Hospitals Sleiman Haroun told Human Rights Watch. Medical supplies and medicines have been difficult to purchase and staff salaries remain unpaid. 

Doctors and hospitals have warned that patients may no longer be able to acquire the treatment they need, whether it be urgent or clinical.

One hospital that has been attempting to withstand the country's situation is Rahma Hospital, a rehabilitation center helping those in need since 1997 in the city of Tripoli, one of the poorest areas in Lebanon and the Arab region. With a quiet and peaceful atmosphere away from the city center, to offer patients some calmness while recovering, the hospital is still battling with paying the costs.

Directors and staff at the rehabilitation hospital believe no patient should receive poor treatment, no matter their financial situation, with the hospital itself being built on the basis of helping those in need.

"Rahma Hospital is for everyone [...] We aim to help the less fortunate who can't afford their treatment because we think everyone deserves to be treated equally, especially when it comes to health," the hospital's Rehabilitation Director, Rola Tout, told StepFeed. 

The revolution affected the medical institution just like other hospitals in the country, with roadblocks blowing the biggest hit on patients' commute.

"Other than the roadblocks, most people started thinking twice about spending their money, it's like their health wasn't a priority anymore. Which is why the hospital created a charity box that helped people who aren't capable of paying for their sessions, or sometimes applying a discount to the cases who needed help financially depending on each case of course specially if we were working with kids, because when kids stop their treatment their condition can get worse," Tout explained.

The rehabilitation center helps heal the after-effects of injuries and strokes; it also hosts and cares for long-time coma patients sent to them from other hospitals. 

The hospital's staff is trained in physical, speech, occupational, psycho, and psychomotor therapy. Using some of the most professional rehabilitation equipment in the country, they assist patients into getting back to their regular lifestyles and routines. 

With imported utensils and medications, and the fluctuation of the dollar in the Lebanese black market, "daily expenses, equipment, bills and medicines" become a struggle, "a non-ending loop." 

"We are always keeping extra medicines and daily equipment such as needles for example, in advance to avoid deficiency. However, there is always a struggle in few items such as food for example, now we have to pay for everything in cash depending on the $ rate which is somehow limiting our purchasing ability and sometimes the issue comes from the providers for not being able to provide us with what's needed due to shortage," the director explained. 

Patients from all ages going through the aftermath of a stroke, multiple sclerosis, head injuries, spinal abnormalities, Parkinson's disease, and neurological disorders are welcome at the center. Those who cannot afford the treatments will find that the hospital is ready to attempt to provide them with the financial support they need. 

However, one of the toughest situations the hospital faces is when neither the patient nor the center itself can afford the medicaments and care necessary for a critical condition. 

"We try our best to cover the expenses needed from donations but sometimes we can't fully cover the whole expenses and this leads to a clash between the patients and the hospital," explained Tout.

"If [this crisis] isn't resolved, people will go into the hospital and die inside," Salma Assi, a spokesperson for medical equipment importers, told Human Rights Watch.

With almost 80 patients a day - 60 of whom usually fall under a more critical category - Rahma Hospital can find it difficult to come up with the financial means necessary to care for all of them. Add to that the current crisis along with delayed payments from the government. 

"The main problem now is that we are living in a time when you don't know where you're going next," the director went on, "we have to live each day as its own, you can't plan further ahead because in this country every day we wake up to a new turn of events."

On a regular day, staff find that the most difficult thing to do is tell a patient and their family that there is nothing the hospital can do for them, that all is lost. 

"Our motto is to always give hope because we believe those who lose hope, lose everything," declared Tout.

Now imagine having to turn patients away because you do not have the means to care for them, nor does your government. The patients become hopeless and that falls on the hospital's shoulders ... while drained ministries offer empty promises and no funding.