“DOMESTIC labor has become an urgent necessity for the family in Kuwait in light of the parents working during the day and the independence of spouses living outside the family home and in response to the changing conditions of life. Unfortunately, the recruitment of domestic workers has become a heavy concern for citizens due to the inability of government agencies to supervise this service and monitor those responsible for it,” columnist Waleed Abdullah Al- Ghanim wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“The Indian ambassador in Kuwait could not bear what he saw of the mafia and gangs recruiting domestic workers from India to Kuwait and their outrageous exaggerations in pricing this service at hundreds of dinars, as the price of recruiting a domestic worker from India exceeded 1,500 dinars, while the real cost in India is around 100 Kuwaiti dinars, and he believes that the actual value should not exceed 300 dinars, according to his statement published in the local press last August.

“The government established the “Al-Durra” company for domestic workers, and the story of its establishment and its role until today is like a comic movie that summarizes the failure of the government administration during the last ten years. It is almost non-existence because it did not achieve its goals for us, despite the fact that its capital is 3 million dinars, with contribution from the concerned authorities including the Kuwait Airways and the Union of Cooperative Societies.

“Another catastrophic aspect is the complicity of domestic workers hiring offices, add to this the domestics who escape from their sponsors and find shelter inside these offices who are then hired on an hourly basis taking advantage of the people’s need. “Thus, salaries have risen to 300 dinars per month. People do not know who to complain to in the government, whether it is the Ministry of Commerce, the Interior, the Manpower, or the Al-Durra Company. Each one points a finger of responsibility at the other, every one evades its role, and the victim is the head of the family or the newly-married young man who finds himself in no-man’s land.

“A message to the esteemed government, to pay attention to the suffering of Kuwaitis on the issue of recruiting and facilitating domestic workers, and disposing of the fake “Al-Durra” company and play a real role, impose effective fines on manipulative servants’ offices that exploit people’s needs and those who employ fugitive workers.” “Make it easy for people with actions and decisions, not with words and statements. The situation has become really difficult.”