World Report 2011 - Human Rights Watch

WORLD REPORT 2011hours, and safety. However, it does not establish monitoring mechanisms andcontinues to exclude the country’s 660,000 domestic workers who come chieflyfrom Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines and work and live inside employers’homes in Kuwait. No law provides them with a weekly rest day, limits theirworking hours, or sets a minimum wage. Many domestic workers complain ofconfinement in the house; long work hours without rest; months or years ofunpaid wages; and verbal, physical, and sexual abuse.A major barrier to redressing labor abuses is the kafala (sponsorship) system,which ties a migrant worker’s legal residence in Kuwait to his or her employer,who serves as a “sponsor.” Migrant workers who have worked for their sponsorless than three years can only transfer with their sponsor’s consent (migrantdomestic workers always require consent). If a worker leaves their sponsoringemployer, including when fleeing abuse, the employer can register the worker as“absconding”, a criminal offense that most often leads to detention and deportation.In September the government announced plans to abolish the sponsorshipsystem in February 2011, but provided no details about the system that wouldreplace it, or whether it would include migrant domestic workers.Key International ActorsThe United States, in the 2010 State Department Trafficking in Persons report,classified Kuwait as Tier 3—among the most problematic countries—for the fourthyear in a row. However, the US chose not to impose sanctions for Kuwait’s failureto combat human trafficking. President Barack Obama determined that sanctionswould affect US$2.4 billion in projected foreign military sales to Kuwait andwould restrict a US$4 million grant to the Middle East Partnership Initiative, considereda key tool for promoting democracy and respect for human rights in thecountry.In April 2010 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay visitedKuwait and spotlighted the sponsorship system and statelessness as pressinghuman rights concerns.554