WUNRN
Human Rights Watch - Kuwait: Abuses Against Marginalized Groups
________________________________________________________________________
The
Peninsula
25
January, 2010
Kuwait Criticised Over Domestic Workers, Stateless Arabs +
"Kafeel"
Sponsor-System Kept in Force - Gender
Human Rights Watch yesterday
criticised Kuwait for abuses against foreign female domestic workers and
depriving stateless Arabs of their rights, but praised some improvements.
“Many domestic workers complain of confinement in the house, long working hours
without rest, months or years of unpaid wages, and sometimes verbal, physical
and sexual abuse,” HRW said in its annual report. Some 700,000 foreign maids
working in the oil-rich emirate remained without proper legal protection as
they were not covered by the labour law, said the New York-based watchdog.
“Domestic workers are vulnerable to abuse not only for the lack of an effective
legal system, but also because the current system punishes them when they
complain,” said Priyanka Motaparthy of HRW’s regional division.
In addition, another one million foreign workers remained hostage to the
so-called sponsor or “kafeel” system which was a “major barrier to the redress of
labour abuses,” the report said.
“Sponsorship traps (foreign) workers in abusive situations, including in
situations of forced labour, and blocks their access to means of redress,” it
said.
Normally described as a form of slavery, the system is applied in all the
energy-rich Arab states in the Gulf, but was recently relaxed in Bahrain.
Kuwait also said it is considering a similar step. HRW also criticised Kuwait
for the maltreatment of about 100,000 stateless Arabs — known as “bidun” —
saying the state failed to recognise the right of these long-term residents to
citizenship or permanent residency.
“They face restrictions in employment, healthcare, education, marriage and
founding a family,” said HRW which called on the Kuwaiti government to recognise
their right to nationality.
The report said improvements were made in some aspects of the rights of Kuwaiti
women, but “broad discrimination continues against women in nationality...
family law and in their economic rights.” It welcomed the election of four
women to parliament last year, constitutional court rulings to allow women MPs
to wear headscarves and the right of Kuwaiti women to obtain passports without
their husband’s consent.
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