KUWAIT CITY - Abuse of domestic workers in Kuwait is rising, and maids in the Gulf emirate face prosecution when they try to escape, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.
The New York-based body said migrant domestic workers have minimal protection from employers who withhold salaries, force them to work long hours with no days off, deprive them of adequate food or abuse them physically or sexually.
"The number of abuses has been rising," Priyanka Motaparty, HRW research fellow in Middle East and North Africa, told a press conference announcing the a report, which details specific cases.
"In 2009, domestic workers from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines and Ethiopia filed over 10,000 complaints of abuse with their embassies," she said.
The HRW data does not include Indian maids who represent almost half of the 660,000 domestic workers in the oil-rich emirate. Domestic workers, almost entirely Asian, form one-third of the 1.81 million foreign employees in Kuwait.
The 97-page report "Walls at Every Turn: Exploitation of Migrant Domestic Workers Through Kuwait's Sponsorship System," describes how workers become trapped in exploitative or abusive employment.
"Employers hold all the cards in Kuwait," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.
Domestic workers in Kuwait are not covered by any law to limit working hours or a rest day or even basic rights, the report said.
"They are forced to work for unlimited hours, 10, 12 or 18 hours with no breaks, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year," Motaparthy said.
Main abuses include physical and sexual abuse, non-payment or delay in payment of salary, long working hours, no weekly rest day and others, the report said.
The report placed the blame squarely on the so-called sponsorship system, which bonds labourers to their employers and put them under their mercy.
The Kuwaiti government said it plans to abolish the system in February.
No comments:
Post a Comment