The scarcity of domestic workers in Kuwait is expected to increase over the next two months due to the decision of the Philippine government to stop the export of domestic workers to Kuwait. This decision has caused a major crisis for labor recruitment offices in Kuwait, as Filipino domestic workers are the most demanded in this sector.
Khaled Al-Dakhnan, the head of the Kuwaiti Union for Domestic Recruitment, stated that the market is currently saturated with domestic workers, and citizens have not yet suffered from the crisis of stopping domestic workers. However, the situation is expected to change during the next two months as the shortage of Filipino domestic workers will begin to be felt. Al-Dakhnan explained that most of the offices currently depend on Sri Lankan workers only, but they are in small numbers and ages that do not suit the requirements of the Kuwaiti family. This means that most of the available applications in the offices reach the age of 45 years and above, with a recruitment price of up to 700 Dinars, in addition to paying the price of a ticket to Kuwait.
The head of the federation also highlighted that the reason for the crisis is due to a crime that may occur anywhere in the world. However, he emphasized that Kuwait is taking all legal measures against the perpetrator. He added that the federation has requested more than once to sign memorandums of understanding and open work permits with a larger number of countries exporting domestic workers. This would be the only solution so that the sector does not fall into this problem annually. This would enable offices and citizens to be free to recruit domestic workers from other countries and nationalities, which achieves balance and decreases in domestic labor recruitment prices as well.
Regarding the federation’s role in resolving the crisis, Al-Dakhnan indicated that a delegation from the Kuwaiti federation traveled to the Philippines for a full month to find a solution in cooperation with the Philippine federation.