Domestic worker abuse increase in Kuwait [October 07 2010]

Abuse of domestic workers in Kuwait is rising, and foreign domestic workers in Kuwait face prosecution when they try to escape, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today.

The New York-based rights group said domestic workers have little protection from employers who withhold salaries, force them to work long hours with no days off, deprive them of adequate food or abuse them physically and sometimes sexually.

"The number of abuses has been rising," Priyanka Motaparthy, HRW research fellow in Middle East and North Africa, told a press conference announcing a report, which details specific cases.

"In 2009, domestic workers from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines and Ethiopia filed over 10,000 complaints of abuse with their embassies," she said.  "Walls at Every Turn: Exploitation of Migrant Domestic Workers Through Kuwaits Sponsorship System," the report compiled by HRW describes how workers become trapped in exploitative or abusive employment.

"Employers hold all the cards in Kuwait," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW. The report was based on interviews of large number of runaway maids at either their embassies or a small government-run shelter. Foreign Domestic workers in Kuwait are not covered by any law to limit working hours or a rest day or even basic rights, the report said.