US-based HRW urges investigation into trafficking of Nepali women in Saudi | Top Stories | ekantipur.com

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KANTIPUR REPORT

KATHMANDU, JUN 09 -

The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to initiate a joint investigation on the abuse and apparent trafficking of Nepali domestic workers, who are taken to Kuwait but made to work in Saudi Arabia against their will and are abandoned there.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the international rights watchdog said that "Kuwaiti employers hire Nepali domestic workers then illegally transport them to Saudi Arabia against their will". The Kuwaiti employers leave the workers with Saudi families who are often related to the Kuwaitis and who usually pay a fee to them. The workers are then forced to work for the Saudi families.

"Saudi prosecutors have new legal tools to bring human traffickers to justice and should use them in this case," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW. "And 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 has also quoted a Nepali embassy official in Riyadh who confirmed that it was difficult to hire domestic workers in Saudi Arabia because of the short supply of workers and the Kuwaitis, who transport the workers for a fee from Saudi employers, apparently capilalise on 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, though not yet passed, legislation protecting domestic workers' labor rights.

More than two million foreign domestic workers are employed in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and are at vulnerably exposed to abuse and exploitation due to the lapses in labor laws and restrictive immigration practices. According to a report on the May 26 issue of Arab News, there are over 50,000 Nepali domestic workers in Saudi Arabia. The so-called employers have a tendency to abuse the domestic workers and when they no longer wish to employ the workers, and to avoid paying fines for the illegal hiring, they often abandon the workers at the Nepali embassy.

"Kuwait and Saudi Arabia should speedily update and pass measures to protect labor 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 labor, trafficking, slavery and slavery-like conditions, alongside the more widespread complaints of non-payment of wages and long working hours.


US-based HRW urges investigation into trafficking of Nepali women in Saudi | Top Stories | ekantipur.com