Across the Middle East, migrant domestic workers are facing extreme risks as war escalates.
Many are isolated inside private homes, cut off from information, support systems, and evacuation channels. Others have lost their jobs overnight, left without income, shelter, or access to basic services. Undocumented workers are often unable to seek medical care or safely leave the country.
Without income, workers are unable to send remittances home—putting entire families at risk.
“Our children at home will not be able to go to school.”
Even in crisis, workers organize
Domestic workers are not passive victims. Across the region, they are organizing to support one another. Through informal and community-based networks, workers are:
- Sharing critical, real-time information
- Providing mutual support to those in distress
- Connecting workers to legal advice and complaint mechanisms
- Coordinating responses to urgent needs
- Raising awareness of the situation on the ground
This work is essential, and often invisible.
What IDWF and partners are doing
Together with affiliates and trusted community groups, IDWF is supporting a coordinated, worker-led response to:
- Monitoring the situation through rapid surveys and direct outreach.
- Providing legal guidance and support to workers facing abuse or abandonment
- Supporting communication between workers and their families
- Documenting the impact of the crisis to inform advocacy and response
- Raising global awareness to ensure domestic workers are not left behind
This response is grounded in the leadership and knowledge of workers themselves.
Why your support matters
Worker-led responses are already happening—but they need resources to continue.
- Provide flexible emergency assistance to workers in urgent situations
- Strengthen coordination among community networks
- Expand access to information, legal support, and communication tools
- Sustain rapid response efforts as the crisis evolves
Your support will help:
Flexible funding is critical. It allows organizations on the ground to respond quickly, safely, and effectively as conditions change.
Your support is solidarity.
Read IDWF Call to Action:
