Kuwait opens shelter for ‘runaway maids

Kuwait is home to more than 660,000 domestic workers, according to a 2010 Human Rights Watch report. Only a third of Kuwait’s population of 3.5 million are Kuwaiti nationals, and up to 90 percent of all Kuwaiti households employ a worker.

Every year, thousands of them come into conflict with their employers, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour. A shelter for male migrant workers is also being built in Kuwait with space for 300 people, according to Hadi al-Enezi, deputy director of labour relations at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia also run shelters for domestic workers.

Shelter beds are also offered in the embassies of the countries domestic workers typically come from, but they are largely overcrowded. According to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour, 900 to 1,000 women are currently housed in various embassies across Kuwait. They often wait for weeks or months before their employers return their passports and allow them to leave the country.

But the embassy buildings are not designed for this purpose and are usually understaffed. At the request of the embassies, the Kuwaiti government paid for this new and larger shelter, which requires contributions from the women’s employers at KD 15 (about $50) per day for each runaway maid.

Source : Al Jazeera via kuwaituptodate