http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTE2ODE4OTEyMg==
Indonesia demands guarantees to lift maid ban Published Date: December 23, 2010 KUWAIT: Indonesia has no intention of allowing its female citizens to come to Kuwait to work as domestic helpers until more legislation is enforced in the Gulf state to safeguard their rights and protect them from abuse, according to officials who attended a recent meeting on the issue. According to a Kuwaiti insider who attended the meeting between senior Kuwaiti and Indonesian officials, including representatives of Kuwait's foreign, interior and labor ministries and officials from the Indonesian Embassy, amongst them the ambassador, to discuss the current ban on Indonesian women coming to Kuwait to work as maids, the Indonesian administration is resolute about not doing so until further safeguards are in place. The ban has been in place since March of this year following a series of cases in which Indonesian maids were subjected to horrific abuse and forced to live in horrendous conditions. During the meeting, the Indonesian officials reportedly demanded that the Kuwaiti government bodies issue official pledges guaranteeing the safety and protection of maids and assurances that there would be no recurrence of the previous incidents of abuse and ill-treatment. The Kuwaiti government bodies' representatives refused these demands, however, insisting that since Kuwait is a state of law and that making official pledges to other countries conflicts with national legislation. The insider said that the Indonesian officials at the meeting described Kuwait's record on workers' rights and combating human trafficking as "bad," and suggested that the suffering of domestic workers in the country is increasing as a result of the lack of legislation protecting their rights, c iting a number of cases in which maids were either deported or chose to return home due to abuse. The insider stressed that the Kuwaiti government is already a signatory to several labor exchange treaties with Indonesia, which opened the door to hiring more Indonesian domestic workers, adding that the percentage of Indonesians amongst the maids fleeing abusive employers who are currently staying at the Khairan Shelter for Protecting Workers from Human Trafficking is the lowest number among all the nationalities represented. The Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior (MoI) previously suspended the recruitment of Indonesian domestic workers following protest from the Indonesian government over their abuse. The suspension was subsequently lifted after the two governments signed a series of treaties regulating the recruitment process. This made it more difficult than previously to recruit Indonesian domestic workers, leading to recruitment costs rising. The insider noted that Kuwait has already introduced legislation providing more protection for expatriate workers, which came as part of a series of similar moves by the Kuwaiti government intended to clamp down on human trafficking, which were acknowledged by international organizations. The insider also suggested that the Indonesian officials' stance on this issue may be based on the US State Department's human rights report, which was highly critical of Kuwait. He stressed that Kuwait has so far come up with several measures to counter some of the human rights-related problems referred to in the report, as well as revealing that more meetings are planned in the future between officials from the two nations in order to resolve this outstanding problem. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: prole...@egroups.com Subscribe : proletar-subscr...@egroups.com Unsubscribe : proletar-unsubscr...@egroups.com List owner : proletar-ow...@egroups.com Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: proletar-dig...@yahoogroups.com proletar-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: proletar-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
