Lebanon

Lebanon's regime descends from the 1931 prostitution law (issued under the French Mandate), which permitted sex work only inside licensed brothels with mandatory medical examinations, age minimums, and General Security registration. Article 523 of the Penal Code restricts the practice to those licensed establishments and criminalises unlicensed solicitation; Articles 524–528 criminalise procurement (3 months–3 years). The Lebanese government stopped issuing new licences in 1975 at the outset of the civil war and has never resumed. Article 534 of the Penal Code separately criminalises "sexual intercourse contrary to the order of nature" (up to one year), which is used against LGBT people despite a series of court rulings (2007 Suleiman, 2011 Batroun, 2016 el-Metn, 2018 Court of Appeals, 2019 Germanos) holding it inapplicable to consensual same-sex acts. A parallel framework — the 1962 decree on entertainment venues and the "artiste" visa administered by General Security — governs foreign women working in licensed nightclubs. The 2011 anti-trafficking law (Law 164) prescribes 5–15 years for sex trafficking, but the US 2025 TIP Report notes the government has never convicted a trafficker for domestic servitude exploitation.

Maameltein, a coastal strip in Jounieh north of Beirut, is the country's notorious super-nightclub district — historically ~130 venues, reduced to roughly 12 by 2024 after COVID and the 2019 financial collapse. The "artiste" pipeline brought 3,376 women in 2019, collapsed to zero in 2021, and rebounded to 1,038 in 2024, drawn primarily from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Morocco, and Tunisia. The 2016 Chez Maurice / Le Silver raid — Lebanon's largest documented trafficking case — freed ~75 women, mostly Syrian refugees, who reported beatings, forced abortions, and debt bondage. Since the 2019 economic collapse the Lebanese pound has lost over 95% of value, more than half the population is below the poverty line, and ~90% of Syrian households live in extreme poverty (World Bank, UN). KAFA reports Syrian women make up 60–65% of female detainees at Hobeish police station.

Law 81/2018 (Electronic Transactions and Personal Data Law) mandates 3-year retention of communications metadata and gives General Security, ISF, and Army Intelligence broad data-access powers that, per SMEX and Privacy International, are routinely exercised without judicial orders. General Security — the same agency that runs the "artiste" pipeline — was tied to the "Dark Caracal" malware campaign. Combined with active criminal defamation enforcement, workers should assume messaging apps, online profiles, and payment trails are surveillable.

Lebanon is an active conflict zone as of May 2026. Fighting resumed 2 March 2026 (the "2026 Lebanon war") after Hezbollah launched missiles in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes on Tehran; over 2,600 killed and 1+ million displaced before a US-brokered 10-day ceasefire on 16 April 2026, since extended for three weeks but being violated. Israel maintains forces at five sites in southern Lebanon. UNIFIL's mandate ends 31 December 2025. Most Western governments maintain "Do Not Travel" advisories; for foreign sex workers, the combination of active war, passport confiscation by club owners, criminalisation, mass deportation precedent, and the absence of consular evacuation routes makes Lebanon one of the most dangerous destinations in the region.

Almost no public/legal advertising surface. Foreign workers are funneled through licensed nightclub agents under "artiste" contracts. Independent operators use closed Telegram channels, encrypted WhatsApp lists, and word-of-mouth.

• KAFA (Enough) Violence & Exploitation — Human Trafficking Unit
• Helem — first LGBTQIA+ org in SWANA region
• ABAAD — Resource Center for Gender Equality
• SMEX — digital rights / surveillance documentation