KUWAIT CITY, Nov 23: Security sources revealed that a gang of Asian nationals have been communicating with maids through social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp groups persuading them to flee from their sponsors to work on the hourly system by which they earn sums exceeding salaries they received from Kuwaiti families, affirming that this encourages a large number of domestics to bargain with employers to “pay more or they leave work”, reports Al-Shahed daily.
The daily quoting sources stated that household workers of Kuwaiti families who fled and sought refuge in their country's embassies, were encouraged to bargain and extort, and this action costs the affected families huge sums, stressing that "certain embassies encourage the maids to flee to employ them for part-time with other families."

Sources added the smuggling process is preceded by the provision of a place to shelter the runaway maids inside old homes and buildings, then send them to work comfortably and safely on the hourly system while the gang members get a percentage of the wage.
The emergence of domestic worker mafia prompted maids to think about looking for financial benefits and higher salaries, despite the cost of hiring the category rose remarkably, approaching about 1500 dinars, and perhaps more.

Observers considered the high cost of hiring maids an issue that harms the citizen, because it drains part of their monthly salary, stressing that maids in the market highly recognized are from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and India, while the African maid is least requested, because of the victims that died at the hands of several of them.

They called on concerned authorities to put an end to the issue of imbalance in the demographics, the most important of which is the increase in number of maids in Kuwait as a result of repeated requests and flight of many domestic workers at the instigation of specific embassies that play a detrimental role toward the interest of citizens. They stressed that gangs contribute to the smuggling of dozens of maids on a daily basis due to financial temptations and sometimes delusions they fabricate.