KUWAIT CITY, Nov 22: Durra Company for Domestic Labor Recruitment has started negotiating with 15 countries to send domestic workers to Kuwait, reports Al-Qabas daily. These countries include Nepal, Ghana, Vietnam, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Cameroon, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Papua Guinea, Mali, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo; in addition to Bangladesh. The daily obtained a copy of a governmental document, stating the company is waiting for approval from some of the abovementioned countries to begin the recruitment process.

According to the company, it contacted several domestic labor recruitment agencies in the Republic of Sri Lanka after the series of events concerning the Republic of the Philippines. It affirmed that a large number of domestic workers were provided and they are always available on its website, adding that everyone can request for Sri Lankan workers through the website. It also revealed that there have been negotiations with the Department of Labor and Employment in the Philippines and a meeting was held with the Assistant Labor Secretary there, during which an agreement was reached to increase the number of recruitment agencies to four with each job order. In this manner, the share of each agency will be 100 domestic workers.

The previous method was as per the Labor Law of the Philippines, which allows the company to contract with two agencies and each job order stipulates only 50 domestic workers for each agency. Consequently, the number of recruited workers will increase by about 200 percent compared to the previous method, and this increase will be in the interest of Kuwaiti families; and the recruitment cost is KD700 including the worker’s travel ticket from origin to Kuwait, the company revealed.

The company also stated that since September 2021, efforts have been intensified to restructure it and improve its revenues; thereby, decreasing the annual loss from KD409,000 in 2020 to KD188,000 -- a decline of 54 percent. The company asked the Consumer Cooperative Societies Union to allow it to open its branches in cooperative societies to ease the recruitment process for citizens; affirming such a branch will open in Al-Salam Cooperative Society soon, and work is underway to communicate with other cooperatives to study the idea and open branches whenever the need arises