Top Stories»
Abuse of Nepalis hits Mideast height
KATHMANDU, JUN 09 -
The US-based Human Rights Watch has urged Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to jointly investigate abuse and apparent trafficking of Nepali domestic workers who agree to work in Kuwait but are instead made to work in Saudi Arabia against their will and abandoned there.
In a statement on Wednesday, the international rights watchdog said “Kuwaiti employers hire Nepali domestic workers, then illegally transport them to Saudi Arabia against their will”. Kuwaiti employers leave the workers with Saudi families who are often related to Kuwaitis and who usually pay a fee to them. The workers are then forced to work for Saudi families.
“Saudi prosecutors have new legal tools to bring human traffickers to justice and should use these,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW. “The reports about abuse and trafficking of these Nepali workers urgently put Kuwait on notice that it needs to pass its own anti-trafficking law.”
HRW also quoted a Nepali embassy official in Riyadh who confirmed that it was difficult to hire domestic workers in Saudi Arabia because of short supply and that Kuwaitis, who transport workers for a fee from Saudi employers, are exploiting that shortage.
Saudi Arabia passed an anti-trafficking law in July 2009. The Kuwaiti parliament is considering a draft of an anti-trafficking law. Both countries have drafted, but not passed, legislation protecting domestic workers’ labour rights.
More than two million foreign domestic workers are employed in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and are at high risk of abuse and exploitation due to flaws in labour laws and restrictive immigration practices. According to a report in the May 26 issue of Arab News, there are over 50,000 Nepali domestic workers in Saudi Arabia. These employers have a tendency to abuse domestic workers and when they no longer wish to employ them or avoid paying fines for illegal hiring, they often abandon the workers at the Nepali embassy.
“Kuwait and Saudi Arabia should update and pass measures protecting labour rights of domestic workers,” Whitson said. “The updates should include measures to prevent employers taking domestic workers abroad against their will.”
HRW’s investigation of abuses against domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, published in a July 2008 report, “As If I Am Not Human,” revealed cases of forced labour, trafficking, slavery and slave-like conditions, alongside the more widespread complaints of non-payment of wages and long working hours.
Meanwhile, MoFA said that it is aware of what is happening in Saudi Arabia and will soon take up this issue through diplomatic channels. “The ministry is concerned over reported incidents of abuse of Nepali migrant workers in Arabia. We are working on this issue and will soon take this up,” said a senior Foreign Affairs Ministry official.
According to MoFA, there is no bilateral labour agreement with Saudi Arabia and that makes it difficult for Nepal to deal with labour issues.
In view of “human trafficking” from Nepal and frequent incidents of labour abuse, the government had asked the India to restrict Nepali migrants from travelling via New Delhi to Saudi Arab and Gulf countries.
For quite some time, human traffickers in Kathmandu have been using Indian airports to evade checking at the Tribhuvan International Airport.
Posted on: 2010-06-10 07:51
Headlines
Advertisements
