KUWAIT CITY, Dec 27: Several domestic labor recruitment offices have been transformed into human trafficking centers where the owners allegedly ‘sell’ human beings, while they lock absconding workers in some apartments to re-sell them to new sponsors or force them to engage in immoral activities, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting sources.

These sources revealed the offices on the first and second floors of a building on Bahrain Street in Salmiya are covered with litter, made worse by the pathetic situation of the workers inside. Each of the workers had their belongings beside them, ready for referral to any client, who seeks their services, once the deal is sealed with the owners of the offices.

Many Arab and Asian employees of the companies are in charge of monitoring the detained workers to ensure they do not escape and also to prevent the security officers from raiding the place.
Sources revealed some of the daily’s staff were granted entry to the dungeon when one of them convinced the man in charge that he was a Kuwaiti in need of a worker for only one month. The owner of the office demanded KD 300, but he refused to present any official document. He said the office is ready to release any of the workers permanently for KD 600, and he will take necessary procedures in time but it is impossible for one month. This led the staff to the second floor of the same building where another office keeps a larger number of workers — most of them from the Philippines, while the others are from Sri Lanka and Ethiopia.

One of the workers, Fatmah, revealed in a somber mood with tears running down her cheeks, that she once escaped from her sponsor but she was unlucky to have fallen prey to a taxi driver who lured her back to the office. She said the office owners usually ‘sell’ them to interested clients, and they are given deplorable accommodation, food, drink and clothing.

Meanwhile, an Ethiopian, Rita, disclosed she ran into two policemen when she escaped from her sponsors in Farwaniya and they took her to an apartment in Hawalli where they allegedly raped her before leaving her on the street. She had no option but to stay in the office, since she had nowhere to go until the office found a client to ‘buy’ her.