KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait may bring in tough penalties for employers abusing foreign workers and maids as a result of Western criticism and violent protests by Asian workers demanding better pay and conditions.
Parliament’s human rights committee has introduced a bill stipulating jail terms of up to 15 years for offenses including forced labor, abusing workers or sexually exploiting maids, according to a copy obtained by Reuters.
In June, a US State Department report on forced labor and the sex trade placed Kuwait in the “worst offender” category, alongside Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman.
Last week, hundreds of mainly Bangladeshi cleaners and workers staged demonstrations to demand better pay and working conditions, saying they could not live on their salaries after employers or agents deducted housing, medical and meal costs.
The protests turned violent, demonstrators overturning cars and ransacking offices. Hundreds of Bangladeshis were arrested and deported, but the government promised to improve workers’ rights and introduce a minimum salary.
The Kuwaiti Cabinet yesterday set a minimum wage for Asian laborers who work for the government. The state news agency KUNA quoted Deputy Prime Minister Faisal Al-Hajji as saying that the Cabinet has decided to make companies who contract laborers for the government pay workers at least 40 dinars, or $150, a month. This is double what most workers make now.
Social Affairs and Labor Minister Bader Al-Duwaila said on Sunday that around 1,000 Bangladeshi workers have been deported. “The number does not exceed 1,000. They are those who staged riots,” Al-Duwaila was quoted as saying by the KUNA.
Al-Duwaila said his ministry had posted delegates at Kuwait airport to ensure that the deported workers receive the wages they are owed before leaving.
Some protesters complained that they were paid as little as 8 dinars ($30.11) a month, and that they were mistreated by their employers, an allegation the government acknowledged was the main reason for the protests.
But the government has warned it will not tolerate violence. And Al-Duwaila said on Sunday it was equally determined to crack down on “visa merchants,” a reference to agents who recruit Asian labor and violate the terms of the work contracts once the workers are in Kuwait.
About 200,000 Bangladeshis work in the emirate, mostly as cleaners and in other low-paid jobs.
“The trade in people is a crime that humanity has witnessed and suffered from for centuries and it is still being practiced in a new way till today,” the bill said.
“We have presented ... a draft law to criminalize human trafficking. It will be a civilized law to meet international demands,” said MP Waleed Al-Tabtabae who co-authored the bill.
The bill has to be approved by Parliament, government and the emir before taking effect.
Ali Al-Baghli, a former oil minister and head of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, said there was a good chance the law would be passed. “It is a good idea to present a local law that prohibits human trafficking because Kuwait’s reputation has reached a low level,” he said.
Women from Asian countries including Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines work as maids and nannies across the Gulf, and many complain of rights abuses.
In 2006, the United Arab Emirates passed the Arab world’s first law aimed specifically at combating trafficking in people, followed in January this year by Bahrain.
