KUWAIT CITY, April 3: As Kuwait continues to face a shortage of domestic workers and a significant rise in recruitment requests, domestic worker specialist Bassam Al-Shammari has warned that the crisis may lead to the emergence of a black market, where recruitment costs could soar to 2,000 dinars or more. This would occur without regard for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry's decision to set domestic worker recruitment costs based on nationality.

Al-Shammari explained to a local daily newspaper that there are several reasons behind the decline of the domestic labor market in recent years. The primary factor, he noted, is the government's failure to fulfill promises made by relevant agencies to increase memorandums of understanding and cooperation agreements with labor-exporting countries, as well as to open new markets for recruitment. Despite promises to expand cooperation beyond just two or three countries, these have largely amounted to "noise without action."

The situation has worsened, according to Al-Shammari, particularly with the Philippines, which has for the first time refused to export new domestic workers. Instead, the Philippines has only sent workers with previous experience in Kuwait or other Gulf countries. As a result, the country has lost over 40% of its supply of domestic workers.

Al-Shammari also highlighted a brief glimmer of hope when Kuwait signed a memorandum of understanding with Ethiopia to recruit domestic workers. However, nearly a year later, the agreement remains stalled, with both sides blaming each other. Kuwait is waiting for a response regarding the workers' monthly salaries, while Ethiopia claims that Kuwait has yet to open entry visas. As a result, the agreement has yet to take effect.

One of the most pressing challenges in the domestic worker market is the slow arrival of new workers. This, Al-Shammari warned, is likely to worsen the crisis, given the increasing demand and the continuing shortage of workers. He attributed this delay to a lack of cooperation from foreign recruitment offices, which are reducing the number of workers allocated to local agencies due to dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Commerce’s pricing policies. The Ministry's recruitment cost is significantly lower than in other Gulf countries, with prices for Asian workers ranging from 1,200 to 1,400 dinars and 800 dinars for African workers. In contrast, the Ministry has set the cost at approximately half of these amounts.

Recent statistics from the Public Authority for Civil Information showed a decrease of around 30,377 domestic workers in the country over the past year and a half. Al-Shammari predicted that this decline will continue, particularly as thousands of contracts are set to expire, especially for women, many of whom have shown no interest in renewing their contracts or continuing to work for their employers.

As for emergency solutions to address this ongoing crisis, Al-Shammari emphasized the need to expedite the signing of new memorandums of understanding with labor-exporting countries to prevent further shortages. He also called for the introduction of flexible employment options, such as daily or monthly work. Furthermore, he stressed the importance of developing mechanisms to resolve labor disputes swiftly and to protect the financial and moral rights of domestic workers before they leave the country. This includes ensuring workers receive paid annual leave, end-of-service gratuity, and weekly time off, as well as regulating their daily working hours.

Al-Shammari noted that the nature of domestic work is vastly different from private sector work, and he criticized the failure of regulators to understand these differences. He pointed out that the labor laws for domestic workers and private sector employees should be treated separately to address the unique challenges each sector faces. The lack of such distinctions, he believes, has led to ongoing issues in the domestic labor market and has even tarnished Kuwait's international reputation.