‘A Kuwaiti citizen filed a case against his house maid “for assaulting her 18-year old daughter and causing a deep cut to the girl’s forehead. Securitymen rushed to the house and arrested the maid. She has since been referred to the concerned authority” (Arab Times, July 7 2010).
The recent alleged crime by a housemaid who assaulted her Kuwaiti sponsor’s daughter adds yet another complication to the housemaid phenomenon in the country. Though we do call for more protections for vulnerable housemaids against their abusive sponsors, yet who will provide protection to sponsors against aggressive, hostile and abusive maids?! The kind of abuse some housemaids commit has gone beyond causing a deep cut on their sponsor’s children’s foreheads. In some cases some maids have already poisoned and in fact murdered their sponsor’s children. The responsibility of protecting sponsors from such abusive housemaids rests upon the shoulders recruiting offices, the relevant government agencies and the sponsors themselves.

For instance, it is the responsibility of the recruiting offices to make sure that individuals whom they bring to work in Kuwait have no previous criminal record, are sane, rational and above all peaceful people. In addition, such recruiting offices must bare part of the responsibility of any future abuse such people commit against Kuwaiti citizens and expatriate sponsors. They can do more to guarantee the safety of sponsors perhaps through establishing any form of communication channel between the office and the recruited maid, driver...etc. moreover, they can also hold weekly awareness programs to teach usually uneducated maids about proper housekeeping, cleaning, and how to communicate properly with their sponsors and their families. Of course, we are not arguing that all sponsors in Kuwait are perfect! However, one cannot justify maids abusing their sponsor’s children while those responsible for bringing them into the country do almost nothing to stop such abuse.

The government also bares another part of the responsibility about this vital issue. For example, instead of leaving all responsibility to recruiting offices, and sponsors to deal with cases involving abusing maids, why not establish a liaison office at the Ministry of Social Affairs to deal with such problems? Though we know that the Ministry is not responsible for housemaids and private drivers, yet they can help Kuwaiti families overcome such problems. For instance, we know for example that there are certain departments in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor responsible for helping individual overcome challenging family issues. Why not expand the jurisdiction of such departments to deal with abusive maids?

Moreover, any sponsors in Kuwait who suspect that their housemaid is abusing their children in any form or manner should immediately contact the authorities. Such would-be- abusing maids usually reveal their hostile behavior in the kind of verbal and physical language use against others, especially children. Waiting until disaster happen when a housemaid or a driver starts abusing any member of the sponsor’s family is illogical. In fact, as a sponsor I have all the right to monitor the behavior of those who work in my house. If I detect the slightest negative signs such as shouting, frowning... I would immediately take all available legal procedures to make sure that I am not putting my family in harms way.

khaledaljenfawi@yahoo.com