US URGES KUWAIT TO END ITS KAFALA SYSTEM

Thu 21 July 2022:

The US State Department yesterday renewed its calls for Kuwait to abolish the kafala sponsorship system, noting that the step was “long overdue”.

“It is time to take measures to improve the conditions of expatriate workers in Kuwait,” the State Department said in its annual human trafficking report.

The report praised Kuwait’s “great efforts to eradicate the phenomenon of human trafficking,” stressing that the country had “fallen back to the second category on the watch list for not meeting the minimum standards.”

“The Kuwaiti government has continued to implement the Tamkeen program to increase oversight on the recruitment of foreign workers and provide greater protection for vulnerable immigrants through the labor recruitment process,” the department added, noting that the Gulf country had not taken “significant measures to resolve the issue.”

Kuwait’s foreign worker sponsorship system mandates that expatriates must be sponsored by a local employer to get a work permit and is consider as a form of modern slavery.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent