Strike by about 150 workers reveals the ugly face of ‘human trafficking’ in Kuwait

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Contract breached, no salaries for months

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 11: The strike by 150 workers of one of the companies which has a contract with the Ministry of Communications to distribute mail has shown the ugly face of human trafficking, violation of the labor law, exploitation of workers and their recruitment in return for money, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The daily has learned from the striking workers, mostly Egyptians that the company brought them to Kuwait to work in the field of mail distribution.

They claim each of them have paid 500 dinars for their visa when signing the contract. They added the company signed the contract with them for a monthly wage of 100 dinars in addition to housing, but after they arrived in Kuwait they discovered the company sold them an ‘illusion’.

The first violation of the contract was they were paid only 75 dinars and the company said 25 dinars were deducted from their salary towards housing expenses.

The workers say the strike is not the first and will not be the last in light of the injustice done to them.

They pointed out the company’s officials have threatened them saying their salaries will be put on hold and money will be deducted for the number of days if they don’t report for work.

They said they have not received their salaries for two months – for June and July, while some others have not been paid for four months. They stated the residence permit of the 120 striking workers has expired while some others who have been arrested and imprisoned by the police are threatened with deportation because they were caught without residence permit.

The workers pointed out the problem is not only about residence permit, some of them were arrested for driving with an expired driving license and were actually sent to the deportation center, but they were released later after proving they are hired upon a government contract.

The employees also say the company violates the labor regulations by depositing and withdrawing money from their bank accounts using their ATM cards to show the Public Authority for Manpower that it is committed to the payment of monthly salaries, but in reality, the workers have no proof that they do not receive salaries, since the bank cards are in the company’s possession.

This news has been read 55558 times!

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