Headline News

Housemaids to face new curbs

Published Date: August 09, 2009
By A Saleh, Staff Writer



KUWAIT: New contracts are being prepared as part of a comprehensive study related to the sponsor (kafeel) system to deal with the situation of domestic helpers. The study includes a ban on transferring a domestic helper's visa to a new kafeel until two years have elapsed after gaining the iqama. The goal behind this is to curb iqama trade and the problem of runaway domestic helpers working somewhere else at the behest of labor offices or embassies.

Sources said the immigration department at the interior ministry is finishing the study soon to be ready for implementation. Sources said in case the domestic helper wants to leave the country or refuses to work, he/she or the office which brought them will pay back the money and the price of the airline ticket to the sponsor in a move to protect sponsors, as the price of hiring a domestic helper has jumped from KD 500 to KD 700.

They said if the whereabouts of the domestic helper are known and he/she is found to be working for others even for one day, he/she will be deported at once and will not be allowed in the country again. The sources noted that the current trend of maids escaping is encouraged by specialized gangs and mafia that are part of embassies or those who deal with them, as they split profits.

A local daily reported yesterday that the total number of domestic laborers in Kuwait has reached some 700,000. This number represents about a quarter of the total population of Kuwait. According to official reports, the majority of domestic laborers are Asians, with a few being Arabs and Iranians. The reports also indicated that three quarters of the domestic laborers worked for citizens while only one quarter worked for Arab and foreign expatriates. The report added that many of these laborers were vulne
rable to visa traffickers. Furthermore, the reports noted that only two thirds of the laborers were legally brought to Kuwait by Kuwaiti families. The remaining one third came to Kuwait by way of visa traffickers.