Kuwait’s domestic worker crisis sparks fears of black marketing

As Kuwait faces a shortage of domestic workers and a surge in recruitment requests, domestic worker specialist, Bassam Al-Shammari warned that the crisis could fuel a black market, driving recruitment costs to 2,000 dinars or more. This would bypass the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s regulations, which set recruitment fees based on nationality.

Al-Shammari told Al-Jarida that the decline in the domestic labor market over the past years is due to several factors, the most significant being unfulfilled promises by some government agencies to expand agreements and memoranda of cooperation with labor-exporting countries and open new recruitment markets. However, none of these commitments have been implemented in practice.

On a positive note, Al-Shammari added that there was a glimmer of hope when Kuwait announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Ethiopia on domestic workers. However, nearly a year later, the agreement has ‘stagnated’ and has yet to take effect. Meanwhile, both sides, Kuwait and Ethiopia, continue to trade blame for its failure, leaving the agreement in limbo and unlikely to succeed.