On landing in Kuwait, immigration officials confiscated her documents, along with those of all the other women.
The moment the immigration officials saw that I had a domestic work visa, they took away my passport and I was taken to a room where dozens of other girls were locked up.
They spent the night without food, water or blankets amid the wintry temperatures. Though gravely uneasy, she tried to comfort herself with thoughts that things would be better in the morning.
I was released the following morning when a lady by the name Hanan who introduced herself as our employment agent came to pick us up.
A clickbait title and a story is one we’ve heard over and over, but one thing caught my interest in the article and it’s the paragraph above. Why are immigration officials confiscating the passports of domestic workers and then locking them up in rooms overnight without food and water? I find it disturbing because it gives the impressions that the local authorities condone this trade.
Here is a link to the article and full story [Link]
37 replies on “How I Became a Slave in Kuwait”
Expat employee is a slave but with a nice name to it.
Off course they do, domestic workers are employed in every Kuwaiti household and they all have their passports confiscated. Until we actually get of our asses and start doing our own dish-washing and laundry I don’t see this horrible situation changing anytime soon.
It’s illegal to confiscate their passports now
Laws don’t apply to most Kuwaitis, my friend.
exactly, unfortunately
Haha, illegal means absolutely nothing. I can name private companies that still hold passports of employees. People just choose to keep their mouths shut rather than risk losing a good job.
Yes, the LARGEST private company in Kuwait does it openly.
Rules are made to look good, however they don’t apply to anyone.
They would lose in court.
and with that, the passport owner will lose his job :-p
lol forget private companies, i know people working for the govt. that have their passports confiscated!
Because there are people within immigration and even the police who actively engage in this and profit off it. For thousands of years the slave trade has been one of the most profitable trades. What we see today is a white-washed version of it.
It will remain white-washed only as long as it’s unreported in the mainstream media. If it’s picked up by the mainstream & western media, shit will start flipping in Kuwait for sure.
Also, @mark, you’re doing a great job with the blog but would be really great if you could raise more awareness about this through your contacts and your blog and help the current “slaves” escape from this brutality. Just a suggestion mate. Please don’t take any offense.
Seriously, enough of this BS. Sure working conditions for employees are Sh*t. No one is holding anyone against their will. “Yeah but they keep their passport”.
They can easily just go to the embassy even if the person is UNWILLING to give their passport back.
They all know what they are signing up for. Seriously,it’s like trying to blame the banks that 90%+ of kuwaiti’s are drowning in debt. No it’s the Kuwaiti’s fault.
Get Real
shadow you seem like an ignorant person with very little knowledge of the cases here in Kuwait. Worse than that, you pretend to actually know something and lack basic human empathy. But hey don’t worry – that’s not really unusual in kuwait.
‘Easily go to their embassy?’ have you heard about the literally HUNDREDS of domestic workers who have tried to escape from their slave homes via the WINDOW – yes some try to commit suicide but many are trying to leave from a locked room. They run to the police only to be beaten and THEN returned to the homes where they are being beaten and raped. DO they know what they are signing up for? No their agencies back home completely misrepresent the job AND the pay – some peopel dont even know they are going to end up as maids.
But all of this and the thousands of other pieces of information will probably do nothing to change your mind – and you know what? that’s okay. You do you man. But when suffering comes to your life – and it will … believe me it will… make sure you’re still ready to look at yourself and go ‘Seriously, i knew what i was signing up for. Enough of this BS.’
Now youre being ignorant with very little knowledge of your surroundings.. youre generalizing and hating on Kuwait. Not everyone lacks empathy and not all cases are ones that you speak of. I for one treat them as my own family and they’d rather stay here in Kuwait than go back cuz of the kind of treatment they get around here from their so called “owner”. and theres a lot of people doing the same so its really not fair speaking of all Kuwaitis as if theyre one. stop generalizing. seriously enough of your bs.
oh shut up. So there’s a handful of kuwaitis who MIGHT treat ppl decently. They are few and far between. Even the ‘nice’ kuwaitis i used to know confiscated passports. Plus generalisations are necessary to get over ANY facts. For example
the very phrase ‘Nazi Germany’ in ww2 – not EVERY GERMAN was a nazi – but who gives a shit because enough of them were to make it more of a fact than not. get over yoruself.
Plus kuwaitis ‘acting like family’ to their employees is old bullshit… since they often treat their families like shit too.
Wow jelly, it seems you know exactly how to treat people right, especially by the way you speak. Your opening line proves how open minded and understanding you are – Shut up? We treat our families like shit? I wonder how you speak to yours if that’s how you hold yourself in public. I wish you can show me on what basis did you come up with that statistic… if not, I suggest you put your tongue where it belongs, the closest trashcan perhaps.
Kuwait is the rape capital of the world.
You’re from a western country. Go ahead tell me where youre from and I’ll throw in a bunch of commissioned creative writing journalism mixed in with horrific realities while I discredit you by calling you ignorant for not believing what I believe on the internet
I’m not from a western country. But your post did make me laugh – I’ve never had such high praise for my writing!
Also I lived in Kuwait for MOST of my life and didn’t need ANY of what I believe to come from the internet. Shit, I probably know more about what happens in your country than you do. You’re too busy getting others to wipe your ass for ya
Wow, a Kuwaiti who doesn’t want the country to change for the better. I’m shocked. Kuwait is so “third-world”, in the way it treats people. Now please go ahead and tell me that if I don’t like it here, I should leave.
One step ahead of you.
How or where did I say I didn’t want Kuwait to move forward? Strawman.
Just realized that wasn’t a response to me
Even if they keep their passports, there are a lot of jobs that need a “permission” from their employer to leave the country, and the presence of their sponsor in case of house maids.
don’t take her words for granted .. you have to investigate the whole thing and hear the other version of the story then judge
Something that happened last week in the beautiful world
An Asian engineer working on contract was denied bottled water by the miskin tea boy..matter brought to hr notice.. HR wanted to take corrective action but was stopped as the miskin was a favorite among the rest… instead the engineer was removed from the site for standing up to his assumed rights… was later categorically told on face that bottled water is only for those on payroll…
And we are hoping the slaves trade will stop…
https://www.thestandard.co.zw/2016/05/16/harare-woman-turned-slavery-prostitution-kuwait/
Ok seriously !!
Kuwaiti men will bring Zimbabwe woman for prostitution !!
I mean this is just BS
Once you go black you can’t go back.
you know just cus you change your name doesn’t mean you are any less of an ass. The repetition of the words “Seriously” and “BS” plus now the blatant racism agaonst – what… black zimbabwe people? Jesus – … nice one man. I’m sure the world of anime is shocked to have a such a racist POS for a fan
Lol.. first of all It was the first time I replay to this post
Secondly I’m being realistic, Zimbabwe prostitutes!! Get real, they just want money
Thirdly, I have nothing againts african people cuz I’m half white half black and the black half were actually slaves in Kuwait so u can shut the f*ck up about that
as most things / laws / decree’s in Kuwait , the original idea was good motivated , then it lead to crap
the idea was a people arriving on a ” new ” domestic work visa do not know the country and people could snatch them outside , and you as the sponsor should be their to take them first hand
if you know the flight time , you can go in and pick her up right away
BUUUUT ,now the place is filled with recruitment office maids, and slackers Kuwaitis who do not feel like going right away for their maid
That happening more than once should have been the reason to change that practice , but This is Kuwait and if its didn’t hurt the guy in charge its not going to change
You can change the country but you cant change it’s people…
Amen! .. they’ll never change.
I kid you not, a friend said this exact line last night when i told him about the issue at hand.
Such a shame.
Oh you kuwaities never change