Kuwait stops issuing entry visas to domestic workers as India seeks guarantee

KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Government has officially suspended issuing entry visas to Indian domestic workers as the Gulf State is unable to comply with a condition requested by the Indian Government.

The Indian embassy had informed Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry that the Gulf State stop issuing the visas if it can't comply with a condition that contracts must guarantee their rights.

The ambassador reportedly alleged in his letter to the Deputy Foreign Minister that Kuwait’s Interior Ministry continued to issue visas to Indian domestic workers ‘in crooked ways.’

Following this, the Interior Ministry’s Assistant Undersecretary for Citizenship and Passports Affairs Major General Mazen Al-Jarrah issued a decision to reprogramme the department’s computers in order to deny access for procedures to issue entry visas to Indian domestic workers, itt was reported by Kuwait Times.

The Indian government wants that foreign employers, particularly the Gulf Cooperation Countries, would be required to pay $2,500 as bank guarantee to hire Indian domestic workers.

The Indian embassy in Kuwait said the bank guarantee would be used "for the repatriation of maids and other unpaid expenses like salary, medical expenses in case the employer fails to pay."

According to the embassy, India in September had decided to ask the Gulf states to ensure their employers pay the security deposit following complaints from the GCC countries about nonpayment of wages. All the GCC nations except Kuwait accepted the condition.

There have been frequent cases of harassment of Indian domestic workers in several countries, especially in the Gulf region. Last month a gruesome incident had come to light in which an elderly woman maid's hand was chopped off her irate employer for having protested against inhuman working conditions.

November 5, 2015