Amid the pressing situation in the country, as it has once again become involved in matters concerning domestic workers following the untimely death of a Filipina household service worker, Constancia Dayag Lagos, concerned agencies and organizations have once again become active in overseeing processes involved in the recruitment, hiring, and deployment of foreign domestic workers in the Gulf State.
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Matters concerning the wages, recruitment, or handling fees for potential domestic workers in the country have once again been addressed, in response to the slow burning anxiety among foreign domestic workers regarding national policies that have been set, and deemed to offer protection to them.
Maid Recruitment Fee Limit at KD 990 – Labour Union Chair
In line with this, the Chairman of Kuwait Union for Domestic Labor Recruitment Offices, Khaled Al-Dakhnan, pointed out that it is a top priority for the union to provide domestic helpers at reasonable rates, adding that the recruitment fee is KD 990 at max, as shared in a report by the Kuwait Times.
In other related news, Dakhnan also emphasized that the death of a Filipina maid recently was of natural causes, and urged everybody to be careful and not to take part in spreading rumours.
It can be recalled that a few days after the discovery of a Filipina housemaid in Kuwait and claims by the Philippine government that she had been sexually abused and murdered, several reports in Kuwait suggested that initial examination of the deceased’s body showed that she died of natural causes and that there was no evidence of a crime.
Meanwhile, in a related development and following complaints filed by 200 Indian labourers working in Kuwait, the Indian embassy in Kuwait warned its nationals seeking employment in the Gulf State not to deal with 92 Kuwaiti companies and 18 Indian employment agencies.
Furthermore, the embassy urged Indian nationals to carefully read the instructions on their website, double-check any job proposals they get, and make sure they get valid entry visas issued by the companies themselves. The embassy also urged Indians to contact their office via e-mail so that they can check the offers their nationals receive from Kuwait.
The reminder released by the labour union chief serves the interest of all potential new hires in the domestic service industry in Kuwait. However, it is not enough to simply address the hiring and deployment of workers into the country, because there is a glaring need for legislation on the protection of migrant workers in the country to be addressed properly.