Last year I posted about how much I hated the housekeeper’s category on the Q8 4Sale website since people were listing their housekeepers for sale. After my post, the 4Sale website started removing those posts and set new rules for the category but I still wished they had closed it down instead. Well it took a thorough BBC investigation and reporting for that to happen.
Over the weekend, BBC published its investigative video below exposing the trade by interviewing a number of people who were selling their housekeepers including a police officer and a woman who was selling her 16-year-old housekeeper!
Posing as a couple newly arrived in Kuwait, the BBC Arabic undercover team spoke to 57 app users and visited more than a dozen people who were trying to sell them their domestic worker via a popular commodity app called 4Sale.
The sellers almost all advocated confiscating the women’s passports, confining them to the house, denying them any time off and giving them little or no access to a phone.
The 4Sale app allowed you to filter by race, with different price brackets clearly on offer, according to category. Source
After the video and article went viral, Kuwait announced that it was cracking down on slave traders and I checked the 4sale website and it looks like they finally completely removed the housekeeper’s category. Hopefully, this will cause the government to consider reforming the kafala (sponsorship) system which in it’s current state is flawed and being abused. Check out the BBC articles on this subject below:
Slave markets found on Instagram and other apps (Oct 31)
Kuwait moves on Instagram slave traders after BBC investigation (Nov 1)
26 replies on “Maids for Sale – Kuwait Cracks Down on Slave Traders”
Yes, reform must come externally for us to do anything. Just waiting for the next BBC expose.
Hope they do a road episode
Most Kuwaiti’s I’ve talked to today at work do not think this is slavery and feel that the BBC is attacking them unfairly. I don’t know what to say. Most of them (if not all) don’t give the maid their passport, or a phone, or a day off, and most importantly the ability to say FUCK YOU I DONT WANT TO WORK FOR YOU ANYMORE!
The maid should be treated like a human being and has all rights to humane working hours and a day off. However, she shouldnt be allowed to keep her passport. Youre bringing in a stranger at the end of the day and you never know what is going to happen. You have to assume that there are good and bad people out there. Its for everyone’s safety. I dont know why some people think that if you keep her passport you are somehow imprisoning or enslaving her. Maybe thats the intention for some sponsors but it doesnt apply for everyone. I personally do it because she is under my responsibilty and its merely for security reasons. Apart from that, treat her well and give her freedom to ask for what she needs.
Ive known friends and family who’ve had maids working for them for years only to find out she has been stealing all along or decided to runaway for NO apparent reason. As I said, its for security.
Thats generally the only thing I disagree with.
The law says you are not allowed to hold the passport, yet you do.
Are you above the law?
This could happen in any situation. Do businesses who employ people from overseas take their passport in fear that they’ll steal from the company and leave the country? It doesn’t happen.
I’ll also have you know that what you’re doing is illegal under Kuwait law.
https://248am.com/fajer/kuwait/kuwait-law-passport-rights/
Actually a lot of businesses do. Enough that when we interview people from Europe it is an actual question they ask during the process and they are told by the embassy when they arrive to comes see them if their company does it.
“It doesn’t happen” !! really !!! well MOST of the companies do just that… an no,, not only small companies, big companies do that as well, one of them is the biggest software provider in Kuwait.
Actually my friend works for the government (inside government offices) but his residency is on a company that has a contract with the government,, and this company has his passport, and he has to request it with providing “valid reasons” and stating when will he return the passport back…
A software provider holds passports? Why are they expecting employees to run away with millions in software? Ridiculous small-minded bushmen thinking some humans are less than the others!
Uh, Hala, if you are taking her passport, you are restricting her freedom. It is the very antithesis of “treat her well and give her freedom to ask for what she needs.” (And what if she asks for her passport?)
And then, yeah, there’s the little matter of your behavior violating the law.
Kuwaitis….
>However, she shouldnt be allowed to keep her passport. Youre bringing in a stranger at the end of the day and you never know what is going to happen. You have to assume that there are good and bad people out there. Its for everyone’s safety.
The maid should be allowed to keep her passport. She is going into a strangers house at the end of the day and you never know what is going to happen. You have to assume that there are good and bad people out there. Its for everyone’s safety.
My dear – this exactly why she should have her passport. HER security. Just like your need to be secure that she doesn’t steal anything from you and run away – SAME WAY – she needs the security and freedom that if she wants to leave the country in any emergency she isn’t dependent on you for it. She is ALSO trusting you with her life, security and money. It is about time you showed some faith? Because just like you know many stories when the maid runs away without reason, I hope you know stories when employers misbehave, kill, rape and hit their maids and they can’t even get out of the house.
The only way to get change to happen: National embarrassment
Anyone know what’s the system like in other gulf countries, pretty sure some are better than the kafeel system
This is a cultural issue. The vast majority of Arabs view laborers/maids as a type of slave.
My heart is broken for that 16 year old girl. Shame on Kuwait!
Did anyone else notice that the second woman on the top from the left is wearing a ‘women rule’ t-shirt?
The irony.
Actually this think has anything to do with the bbc, I think the bbc are the last people the government would listen to considering how many government officials have been insulted by them. Last week kuwait signed a memorandum of understanding with the E.U (#nodealbrexit) where kuwait agreed to work with the E.U and also step up it’s efforts to end slavery. This was memorandum was signed to promote Kuwait for the schengen exemption. It just lucky that kuwait did this after the BBC’s story, keeping in mind kuwait would never be able to do this task in 24 hours. Personally I hate bbc Arabia, they have always attacked Kuwait especially during the gulf war where they backed Saddam, they called the mug cafe advert’s creator a promoter of devil worshipers repeatedly to the point where during the interview she had to shout to the host that she neither worships the devil and comes from a family that fears god. Lastly this form of slavery is not only a kuwait thing, this form of treatment of maids regularly happens in both Singapore, Hong Kong as well as the rest of the Middle East recently a there was a website in Singapore with “servants for sale”. I guess people just don’t understand what slavery is, non whites have not had such a strong culture of having slaves so people may not understand the repercussions and tbh I think the government should promote roombas and other worker replacing machinery (like dishwashers) cause they are very good and in the long run save a lot of money.
“non whites have not had such a strong culture of having slaves”. Then how do you explain Oman having legalized slavery until 1979? Or that Saudi Arabia had eunuchs?
Lmao what
You know the American slave trade started with Arab traders right
My grandmother remembered slavery in Kuwait, 200 years after most of the west made it illegal
I like how your blog has influence on authorities here. Trash cans and then this.
Thank you mayor of Salmiya 😛
Truth
Something needs to be done about those dog walkers in Salmiya Garden who do not clean up after their dogs and their poo keeps stinking for weeks especially during winters. Such people should be made what they leave behind for the world to smell.
The crackdown has come and not a day too soon.
I believe even the Arabic broadsheets in Kwt would run a similar sorta feature not too long ago
I do hope the National Assembly would conduct a grilling to put a stop to this abominable practice
Are we here to talk about the people of Kuwait or a system implemented that led to an unfavorable side effects?
If its the latter, the solution is very simple. But do we have someone to take the lead and implement solutions?
While everyone up there busy becoming rich, there goes the Brits, Germans, French, Americans and who know who else pushing us around form the inside and outside.
This was long overdue but it’s not only maids who suffer.
Just look at the thousands of labourers engaged by manpower agencies. Most of these companies give themselves impressive names such as Al Falafel International Trading Company’ but in reality the only trading they do is visa trading or slave trading.
The workers tend to be exploited and abused because they’re viewed as commodities, not human beings.
Many of them live and work in apalling conditions but are afraid to speak out.
Hopefully the BBC will continue to broaden their investigation and look at other sectors. After all, the Emirates and Qatar would have continued with modern day slavery if the world’s media hadn’t shamed them into reforming.
Ive been in Kuwait long enough to see multiple such incidents where foreign media expose stuff like this. but honestly, does anyone think this will change anything? most of such slave drivers are oblivious to the fact that they are doing anything wrong.
the notion that this is ‘wrong’ needs to be inculcated from childhood by parents and at schools through the education system. it will take a generation or two to change the mindset.