KUWAIT CITY, Sept 12:  The remarkable increase in the cost of hiring housemaids can be attributed to several factors, on top of which, is the artificial shortage created by some agencies, reports Al-Seyassah daily quoting Head of the Kuwait Union of Domestic Labor Offices (KUDLO) Fadhel Ashkanani.

Ashkanani has accused some agencies of conniving with the housemaids to escape from their sponsors and return to the recruitment firms, which re-send them to other sponsors at higher fees.  He claimed some of these firms rent out their licenses to Arab and Asian middlemen for KD 300 and the latter manipulate the fees to gain higher profits.

Revealing the ban on the recruitment of Indonesian maids is another factor, Ashkanani said this has affected the domestic labor sector in Kuwait because the Indonesians used to constitute 35 percent of the household workforce in the country.  He added the hiring of maids from the Philippines cost between KD 750 to KD 1,000 because they are in demand in Gulf nations.

Ashkanani also criticized the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor for excluding the household workers from the labor law in the private sector, asserting this has tainted the image of Kuwait in the international community.