The demand for online work in the Gaza Strip has increased recently, especially among graduates (more than 12,000 according to the latest statistics) who have not found job opportunities.

Due to the impact of the blockade, which has been imposed for the fifteenth consecutive year, job opportunities in the sector have declined, exacerbating the unemployment crisis and contributing to the growth of remote work opportunities via the Internet.

Hundreds of young people – whose exact numbers are not available– are now working on a computer screen for 8-12 hours a day, for relatively acceptable financial wages.

Mona Alyan, a 40-year-old woman from the Gaza Strip who graduated in 2015 from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Palestine, spent more than three years searching for a job but to no avail, due to the high unemployment rate in the blockaded Gaza Strip. The number of unemployed as of the first quarter of this year, reached 368,000, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics.

Alyan, who has the skill of drawing, did not give in to despair, as she developed her talent through training, and resorted to working in this field online, so that the engineering certificate did not become just a piece of paper hanging on the wall of her room.

Despite poor internet access and power cuts of more than eight hours a day, Alyan works eight hours online, yet she is not fully paid.

Alyan contracts with companies outside the walls of the country to produce various works of art, such as videos (motion graphics), paintings, or cartoons, and receives a financial fee.

The woman complained that some customers did not pay for the technical outputs she carried out, and evaded payment, which often takes place through quick money transfer services.

Alyan wasn't the only one who fell into the trap of exploitation of online workers. Alaa Kamal, who graduated a decade ago with a major in health administration from Al-Quds Open University.

Alaa did not have the opportunity to work with her university degree, so she had to learn electronic drawings and paintings that address societal issues, through online courses and others implemented by private institutions.

A large part of remote workers relies on attracting customers through official platforms specialized in working via the Internet, such as Upwork, Khamsat and Mustaql, among others, in which the relationship between the worker and the customer is often based on a fixed-term wage agreement under the supervision of those platforms that deduct a portion of the wage.

"Alaa" tried to stay away from official work platforms and tended to communicate with customers directly to avoid paying the deduction value, which did not guarantee her right to receive payment.

"After the person who asked me to work while living in an Arab country, he evaded paying fees and banned me on all social networking sites, and I had no chance to prosecute him legally," she told the "last story".

Alaa didn't know how to react in this situation, despite asking for help from many people with experience working online, but to no avail. This is due to the lack of a clear legal deterrent protecting online workers.

The Palestinian Labor Law No. 7 of 2000 largely protects workers' rights and entrusts the Ministry of Labour with the task of implementing and supervising it, but this law does not mention any of the remote work, which is considered a form of modernity.

The Ministry of Labor itself denied that it has a role in preserving the rights of remote workers, due to the limitations imposed by the legal framework that governs the ministry's work.

Meanwhile, Mustafa Ibrahim, a human rights defender at the Independent Commission, explained that the legal environment is not ready to guarantee the rights and protection of online workers, especially girls, in light of the current wave of crises that Gaza is experiencing.

Amjad al-Agha, director of the legal department of the PLC, agrees with his predecessor that there is no legal framework that protects female workers in cyberspace.

"It's necessary to reorganize the legal legislation on labor, as it does not include all the provisions that create suitable conditions for the worker for his work, and it is necessary to add some clauses that protect the rights of workers," Agha said.