KUWAIT: Kuwait is required to continue strengthening enforcement of the domestic worker law to ensure their rights are protected, the US State Department said in its latest annual report on human trafficking. “The United States is committed to combating human trafficking, because it represents an attack on human rights and freedoms,” Blinken told media at the report’s launching event. “It violates the universal right of every person to have autonomy. Today, more than 27 million people around the world are denied that right.”

The report includes detailed information on how countries across the world, including Kuwait, are dealing with the issue of human trafficking. Some of the steps the Kuwaiti government must take to protect domestic worker rights, says the report, include increasing access for domestic workers to file a grievance with authorities, intensifying inspections of registered and fraudulent recruitment agencies and improving screening of domestic worker complaints to identify potential labor trafficking cases. Still on the watchlist Kuwait remained on ‘Tier 2 Watch List’ in the ‘2023 Trafficking in Persons Report’ for the second consecutive year.

Being on the ‘Tier 2 Watch List’ means that Kuwaiti government “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” but is making “significant efforts” to achieve that goal. The report attributes Kuwait’s position to several factors, including a failure to implement procedures to identify trafficking and the continuous detainment, prosecution and deportation of potential trafficking victims without screening for trafficking indicators. “The government shelter did not regularly accept workers who had criminal charges filed against them, including for ‘absconding,’ which may have left some unidentified trafficking victims without care,” reads the report.

It adds that the government “did not take any new steps to reform its visa sponsorship system, which continued to render migrant workers highly vulnerable to exploitation, specifically trafficking.” However, the report acknowledged that Kuwait is assisting more vulnerable migrant workers at the government shelter, launching an online platform for domestic workers to file grievances rather than submitting a complaint in person and continuing to hold fraudulent recruitment agencies civilly accountable. Reforms, protection services needed the report prioritizes a list of recommendations to tackle human trafficking in Kuwait, such as ensuring unhindered access to the government shelter for all potential victims, including those who self-refer, regardless of criminal charges, and do not require a complaint on file with authorities to be granted access at the shelter.

It also urged increasing the number of investigations and prosecutions of employers who illegally confiscate migrant workers’ passports and strengthen penalties for passport confiscation in accordance with Kuwait’s labor law to deter potential future perpetrators. Furthermore, the report recommends introducing reforms to the visa sponsorship-based employment system to allow “all workers at any time to change employers and leave the country without requiring employer approval.” It also calls for protection services specifically for male victims, including accommodations, and specifying procedures for their access to care. Charging for visa renewals One of the most common ways to lure visa trafficking victims is charging workers for issuing or renewing visas — an illegal practice carried out by some employers in Kuwait.

This practice often leaves workers stuck in the vortex of paying exuberant annual fees to renew their visas while struggling to save from their meager wages. To combat this problem, the US State Department recommends that the Kuwaiti government follows through on Article 10 of Law No 6 of 2010 (Kuwait labor law) and issue a resolution which sets procedures for recruitment fees in private-sector labor law. Such a move would ensure workers are not subjected to fees related to their recruitment and would lead to the establishment of penalties for non-compliant agencies and employers who subject workers to such fees.

More stringent law enforcement the report further recommends that the government continues to increase law enforcement efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers, including Kuwaiti citizens and allegedly complicit officials, under the 2013 anti-trafficking law rather than other criminal laws, when applicable. It calls the government to proactively screen for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations, including those in government and embassy shelters and those arrested for immigration violations or prostitution offenses, or those who flee abusive employers and face countercharges.

These measures, says the report, would ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. In addition, the US report says that the government needs to strengthen efforts to prosecute allegations of forced labor crimes criminally instead of administratively, and refer cases with trafficking indicators, such as complaints of non-payment of wages, passport confiscation, and restriction of movement, for investigation as potential trafficking crimes. The report urged the government to exert more efforts in raising awareness on existing protections for migrant workers and penalties for traffickers, particularly among vulnerable populations, including domestic workers, as well as employers, company owners and recruitment agencies.