KUWAIT: Director General of Residency Affairs Major General Talal Maarafi said the department began implementing organizational procedures to obtain absence permissions for domestic helpers. This facility is only available for Kuwaiti sponsors. He said the domestic helper must go personally to the department to obtain a form stating his/her wish to travel and work with the sponsor and his family abroad, in accordance with item 46 of the domestic help law 68/2015 which says 'the sponsor does not have the right to ask a domestic helper to work outside Kuwait, and if this happens without consent, the helper will be returned to his/her country at the expense of the employer'. Maarafi said citizens who want to travel abroad and take their domestic helpers with them for a period exceeding six months should go to the domestic help department at the interior ministry to get the helpers' consent to travel and work outside Kuwait in order to receive a permission to stay over six months.

By Hanan Al-Saadoun