Adding to the burden of local employers is the rise of cost for the recruitment of domestic workers.
According to reports, there were regulatory measures which were made by several concerned authorities to prevent the rise of recruitment cost but their efforts were deemed fruitless. The pandemic has affected the industry, leading to the vast increase of complaints from Kuwaiti citizens and various recruitment agencies.
Kuwaiti citizens point out the fact that the regulatory measures performed by the government were not enough to address the growing shortage of domestic workers because it is difficult to obtain one due to the high price of recruitment. The high demand and decrease in the number of workers are also seen as one of the major problems.
For instance, one of the complaints includes the cost of bringing Filipino domestic workers from the Philippines as each contract already ranges from KD1,700 to KD2,000.
Most recruitment offices failed to sign new contracts aside from India and the Philippines as these countries are the only ones who have effective ongoing agreements.
There is a limit in the recruitment of foreign domestic workers from Sri Lanka while there were no organizing agreements for the recruitment of domestic workers in countries like Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Nepal.
They also pointed out that Kuwait is no longer considered as a country of destination for domestic workers due to some reasons.
In the Philippines and other countries, recruitment agencies and prefer to reach out to countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia because they are capable of offering a higher financial privilege to domestic workers and are more careful in protecting labor rights when compared to Kuwait.
“There are other global markets that recruit domestic workers from the Philippines such as Singapore, Japan, Canada, and the United States. The monthly salaries for domestic workers in these countries are higher than the salary set in Kuwait by more than $400 per month,” says a recruitment agency owner.
Source | ArabtimesKuwait
