The US State Department’s report on human trafficking for the year 2022 has placed Kuwait on the Orange list. In its report on downgrading Kuwait’s standing, the State Department pointed out that the government “does not fully meet the minimum standards necessary to eliminate human trafficking”, but the report added that the government is making great efforts to do so.
While the report identified three levels of countries based on the extent to which they meet the standards in combating the phenomenon of human trafficking, Kuwait was included in the watch list of the second level (orange), which includes countries whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards and are making great efforts to achieve this, but they do not take concrete measures.
Responding to the latest report, head of the National Office for Human Rights, Ambassador Jassem Al-Mubaraki, said he was not surprised by this decline given Kuwait’s continued support for the sponsorship system in hiring expatriates to work in the country. He described the sponsorship system as similar to slavery, servitude and forced labor.
In a statement to the media, Al-Mubaraki added that he had repeatedly raised the issue of sponsorship and the need to abolish this system, with the relevant authorities as it harms the reputation of Kuwait. He explained that some unscrupulous sponsors bring workers in exchange for money, with the price for recruiting some nationalities reaching more than KD2,000 per person.
He asked, “Do they think that the world does not see what is happening in Kuwait?” He reiterated the “necessity of abolishing the sponsorship system, and putting an end to what is happening in the recruitment offices of domestic workers.” He added,
“The world sees advertisements posted on websites where servants are offered for sale, and this is slavery, although the decision has been issued by the Council of Ministers to ban such advertisements.” He stated that “the sponsorship system and other related reasons are the cause for the country’s downgraded classification by the US State Department and other international Human Rights organizations.
He pointed out that “the situation is currently bad, but if the sponsorship system is abolished and the residence is made free and a greater role is given to the Public Authority for Manpower, so that only trained and qualified workers based on the labor market demand are brought in, we will have an ideal market and this will also lead to alleviating demand on the state’s subsidies and infrastructure facilities.
He stressed that “everyone knows that there are mafias that recruit workers for a fee, and throw them on the street to work, which then increases pressure on state facilities, and this was revealed during the pandemic period.
Also, what happened to the labor cities project that was supposed to guarantee the humanity of these workers?” On the progress of Kuwait’s classification during the period of the “Corona” pandemic and its decline at the present time, Al-Mubaraki said that “what was done during the pandemic period was a reaction, and when the pandemic ended, we went back to where we were because our policy is a policy of reactions.”
He added, “Before looking at the report of the US State Department or others, we must reform ourselves, because the cause is not mystical, as it lies within each of us in Kuwait.”
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