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transparent implementation of law 68 of 2015 seems to be impossible within the current circumstances that do not include any mechanisms to ensure that employers are granting domestic helpers their rights, considering the fact that private houses and residences cannot be inspected.
From human trafficking to sexual, physical and verbal abuse are the most common violations and crimes committed against domestic workers. On the other hand, mental abuse and being belittled are frustrating to a domestic worker who migrated from their country of origin to earn a better living. But they end up being discriminated against, are restricted from freedom of mobility and have limited ability to communicate with their family and the outside world.
In many cases, domestic workers might face even worse than the abovementioned violations, and can never reach out to the authorities or help themselves because they are not able to communicate with the outside world to be heard. According to a study initiated by legal researcher Saleh Alhassan, 62 percent of employers are unaware of the existence of the domestic workers law, and they treat domestic workers at their sole discretion.
Executive resolution no. 22 of 2022 that came to fill the legal vacuum in law 68 of 2015 tackled the minimum wage that shall be given to a domestic worker (KD 75). But the law did not stipulate that if an employer or recruitment office approves this wage, it should be equivalent to the amount of effort and time given to the job, considering the fact that article 22's sub-article 2 mentions a maximum of 12 working hours per day.
Moreover, the law states that these working hours shall include "break hours" without stipulating how many hours of break or when to have them, which means that even when a domestic worker goes to have lunch, they might be asked to do some work. Where the executive resolution states that a domestic worker shall have a break hour after every five working hours, the question arises: Who among the employers is going to commit to that?
Confiscating the passport is prevented by both the law and the executive resolution, yet has never been considered as a major violation or human trafficking, nor ever been penalized in a sufficient manner. While both the law and the resolution prevents this, neither treat this violation as a crime. Meanwhile, visa trafficking and passport violations are being committed daily - the study confirms that passports of 92 percent of domestic workers are confiscated.
By observing the executive resolution, I personally see that it fails to protect domestic workers from crimes and abuses. I believe it is the time for legislators to stand for justice and discuss true mechanisms for law enforcement, or else we will find that all the laws are just ink on paper.
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