KUWAIT CITY, March 29: In light of the continued decision of the concerned authorities in the Philippines to stop the export of domestic workers to Kuwait, the Kuwaiti labor recruitment offices are suffering from a major crisis represented in the scarcity of applications in their offices, because the Filipino domestic workers are in most demand and the sector suffers from many problems, reports Al-Anba daily. This is what the Kuwaiti Union for Domestic Recruitment head Khaled Al-Dakhnan said in a special statement to the daily that the citizen has not suffered from the crisis of stopping domestic workers so far, given that the market is currently saturated with domestic workers, in addition to the temporary suspension decision issued by the Philippine government has not become effective.

He added that only offices during the month of Ramadan suffer from the crisis due to the lack of recruitment requests, especially since Filipino domestic workers constitute 75 percent of the total employment in the country.

The domestic sector is expecting that if the Philippine government does not reverse the temporary suspension decision, citizens will suffer from a shortage of domestic workers during the next two months. With regard to the current situation, Al-Dakhnan explained that most of the offices currently relies on the Sri Lankan labor only, but it is in small numbers and most of them are elderly and do not suit the requirements of the Kuwaiti family, pointing out that most of the applications available are in the 45 years and over range with a recruitment price of up to 700 dinars, in addition to bearing the price of a ticket to Kuwait. This is due to the fact that workers with young ages have great job opportunities inside their country and do not need to travel abroad.

The head of the federation said that the reason for the crisis with the Philippine side is due to a crime that may occur anywhere in the world, especially in light of the Kuwaiti side taking all legal measures against the perpetrator.’ He pointed out that the federation demanded more than once the signing of memorandums of understanding and the opening of work permits with a larger number of countries exporting domestic workers, as the only solution so that “we do not fall into this problem year after year.”