KUWAIT CITY, Feb 23: Delay in approval of the new unified contract for the recruitment of Filipino domestic workers became part of the crises in Kuwait where the activities of several recruitment agencies are currently halted despite the fast approaching holy month of Ramadan, adding the agencies were unable to complete applications to issue visas for some Filipino domestic workers contracted for, prior to the ban, in cooperation with the foreign offices, reports Al-Anba daily.

The daily sought the opinions of several domestic workers who expressed anguish over the authorities’ delay in issuing or adopting the final draft of the contract despite the two sides agreeing on the major items of the contract.

To begin with, owner of an agency for recruiting domestic workers, Ali Al-Ali, pointed out that the final form of the new contract has yet to be approved in spite of obtaining the consent of Fatwa and Legislation Department. He affirmed seriousness of the current crisis, indicating the offices are without applications for several weeks, while the Kuwaiti families have urgent need for domestic workers due to the approaching Ramadan.

Al-Ali appealed to concerned authorities to expedite solutions to the crisis by approving the new unified contract to stop the financial losses suffered by the recruitment offices in Kuwait, given that thousands of citizens who obtained visas for Filipino workers before the total ban was issued by Philippines’ Ministry of Labor are still to come.

He added the repeated crises negatively affect the sector, resulting in exodus of professional and trained domestic workers to neighboring countries. Bassam Al-Shammari, another domestic recruitment office owner, pointed out that the Philippines side has completed all procedures required to lift the ban of deployment on their domestic workers to Kuwait, indicating delay of the procedures in Kuwait will lead to material losses in private sector represented by the companies, domestic recruitment offices, and Kuwaiti citizens.

For his part, Nader Habib who also owns a domestic recruitment office affirmed the Philippines has yet to deploy any domestic worker to Kuwait until now, as they are waiting for the issuance and approval of the new unified contracts by Kuwait.