The Attorney General, Counselor, Muhammad Al-Duaij emphasized that offering domestic workers for sale or withholding their salaries is considered trafficking in human beings, and will be penalized with 15 years imprisonment, reports Al Rai daily.
Advisor Al-Duaij said yesterday that the Ministry of Interior represented in the Department of Public Morals Protection and Combating Human Trafficking, is obligated to catch and arrest every person who announces the sale of domestic workers and register a case against him.
He explained that human trafficking has two forms: the first is to sell domestic workers in exchange for a financial sum, i.e. selling the services from one sponsor to another, in exchange for a sum of money agreed upon by the seller and the buyer, and the second, forcing the workers to work without a salary or part of the salary, so that the sponsor takes part of the employee’s salary, and this is human trafficking. He asserted that the penalty for human trafficking can reach 15 years imprisonment, for everyone who commits the act.
Human trafficking is one of the crimes that impacts Kuwait’s reputation internationally, Al-Duaij added that it’s in Kuwait’s interest and reputation, which are first over any other consideration or any material loss for individuals, and Kuwait is given first consideration and above everyone who suffers a loss that can be inflicted on any citizen or expat.
Highlighting one of the issues recently registered, he noted that a complaint was submitted by an Asian worker, claiming that her sponsor had not given her monthly salary for seven years, and when she asked for her salary, she was told by the sponsor that she was collecting her salary for her, and that her total salary was kept in the bank so that no one would steal it. The Kuwaiti was summoned, and she was investigated and detained, he added, that the maid received the 7-year salary in full, and this was considered a human trafficking issue.
Al-Duaij affirmed that there are laws, penalties, and fines for everyone who is indulging in human trafficking in all its forms, and these crimes offend Kuwait first and foremost.