Domestics enslaved in Kuwait recount horror

SINDHUPALCHOWK, Sept 14: Thirty-seven-year-old Saraswati Mijar of Thulopakhar, who flew to Kuwait to work as domestic help, was sold to three employers in three months. Mijar, whose travel to Kuwait was assisted by an agent based in Lishankhu VDC, was told by one of her employers that she had been sold for Rs 120,000.



Mijar, who returned to Nepal after fleeing her employers and came in contact with police in February this year, filed a human trafficking complaint against the agent at the District Police Office (DPO) the same month. However, after seven months, police are yet to register her complaint. [break]



“They say evidence is required to register a human trafficking complaint,” said Mijar on Tuesday tearfully. “I have been denied justice. The agent has been encouraged by the negligence from relevant authorities. Women who go to foreign shores for employment are being forced to do something else,” she added.



The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a statement issued in June, confirmed, citing a Nepalese diplomat in Riyadh, the trafficking of Nepali domestic workers between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.



“A May 26, 2010 report in the Saudi daily Arab News, which was confirmed by a Nepali diplomat in Riyadh interviewed by Human Rights Watch, said that Kuwaiti employers hire Nepali domestic workers, then illegally transport them to Saudi Arabia against their will,” said the rights watchdog.



The reason for this is that it is difficult to hire domestic workers in Saudi Arabia because of short supply, and also because Saudi Arabia passed an anti-trafficking law in July 2009, while Kuwaiti parliament is still considering a draft of an anti-trafficking law.



Because of the difficulty of arranging for the illegally hired workers´ departure from the kingdom when the Saudi families no longer wish to employ them, and to avoid paying fines for illegal hiring, the families often abandon the workers at the Nepali embassy, the statement said citing the newspaper report.



Many Nepali women arriving at the embassy appeared to have suffered abuse, including sexual abuse, according to the statement.



Anita BK, also a resident of Thulopakhar, Sindhupalchowk, suffered similar abuse during her seven-month stay in the Gulf when she was sold to five houses, before she finally escaped from the clutches of her tormentors.



“We suffered a lot before coming here. We are asking for justice. We are told that there isn´t sufficient evidence,” BK said at an interaction between the victims and relevant authorities. The latter weren´t able to give them assurance for justice. All that the victims got was sympathy.



Like these two women, Phool Maya Shahi went to Kuwait in April, 2009, when she was just 19. “The agent said I would get a sewing job. But what I had to do was entirely different,” said Shahi who returned to Nepal with the help of police after being exploited for eight months.



Shahi, who is now an activist associated with a women´s network against domestic violence and trafficking, said she has not been able to file a complaint as officials demand evidence.



Ten such women related their stories of sexual and labor exploitation, and demanded action against those responsible.



They had a common question to ask to the district attorney, chief district officer, chief of district police, and law practitioners present to hear their stories: Will you continue to allow agents to walk freely while women continue to be sold in the name of foreign employment, just because of lack of evidence?



None of the officials had a clear answer.



District Attorney Yadav Prasad Sedhai said legal confusion has made it difficult to take up cases against trafficking in women. According to Sedhai, those taken for employment purposes cannot be interpreted as trafficked. “In the case of trafficking, there is clear intent of selling and buying. This is the basis on which cases are taken up,” he said.



District Police chief Sthaneshwar Regmi said police cannot register such complaints as prevailing laws demand evidence before registering such complaints.



According to the HRW statement, more than two million foreign domestic workers employed in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are at high risk of abuse and exploitation due to gaps in labor laws and restrictive immigration practices.



“Saudi Arabia, like Kuwait, continues to exclude domestic workers from its labor laws,” the statement added.

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