KUWAIT CITY, April 25: The General Directorate of Residence Affairs in a statement to all governorates in the country said the names of five new African countries have been added to a list of countries whose domestic workers cannot be recruited in the country, reports Al-Qabas daily.

This came following instructions given by Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With the inclusion of the five countries the total number of countries now stands at 20.

The five new countries are Djibouti, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.

The sources said the 15 countries include Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Togo, Senegal, Malawi, Bhutan, Chad, Tanzania, the Gambia, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.

The decision, a copy of which has been obtained by the daily says, 5 other African countries have been temporarily banned from sending domestic workers to Kuwait – Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Eritrea and Liberia.

The sources pointed out, that instructions were issued not to issue an entry visa for domestic workers of African countries that have no embassies in Kuwait and/or if the validity of the passport is less than 3 years