By Ben Garcia

KUWAIT: Facing a dearth of workers, some local recruitment agencies are poaching domestic helpers already under contract, and in some cases, enticing them to abscond from their current employment in exchange for higher salaries. "We reported them [illicit recruiters] to the police and they will catch them eventually. They are unlicensed recruiters and are illegal. Some of them are also using social media to entice household helpers to abscond," Khaled Al-Dakhnan, head of Kuwait Union for Domestic Labor Offices (KUDLO), told Kuwait Times.

"Many of our member recruitment agencies have complained against them. We are really concerned because we discovered some domestic helpers are running away because they were promised a higher salary. We reported them to the police, and these people involved in illegal recruitment will be punished," he said.

Since the start of the pandemic, Kuwait has throttled the recruitment of domestic labor. This has not only led to shortages in the formal, regulated market, but also in the black market. Domestic laborers, especially house help from places like the Philippines, come to Kuwait on two-year contracts. But some end up fleeing their sponsors' homes before the end of the contract, working illegally for hourly wages or in other people's homes and businesses.

As the demand for help has grown, some recruiters are now targeting domestic helpers already in the country, encouraging them to leave their sponsors, whether they've completed their contracts or not. Dakhnan warned against licensed offices that are leased to recruiters allegedly encouraging domestic helpers to escape from their sponsors to work by the hour, which is more profitable for the helpers and the office.

"This is illegal, and the only person affected by a helper's escape is the sponsor, plus us - the legal recruiters. The sponsor is harmed financially and morally as following a long wait of around five months to hire the helper, she absconds after a week," he said.

Kuwait Times also spoke to a local recruitment agency that has posted ads on social media to recruit domestic helpers already in the country. "I don't think we can be called illegal recruiters - we have a licensed office here in Kuwait and we recruit only local workers who are searching for a job. We help people - also those on domestic helper visas - but only those who are ready to transfer or released by their sponsors," said the secretary of the company, which requested not to be named.

"Why not earn a bigger salary? For someone earning KD 120 as a domestic helper, we can raise that to KD 300 or even KD 400. We all came here to work, and if there are opportunities like this, we must take advantage of them," she added. Another ad, seemingly targeted at domestic helpers, offered anyone interested in a job in Jahra as a caregiver a salary of KD 500 per month.

Mariam Macapudi, President of the Filipino Association of Secretaries of Employment Agencies in Kuwait (Fil-Aseak), a group comprising of 200 licensed recruitment agencies, said she was among those who brought this matter to the attention of KUDLO.

"The problem here is as a licensed agency, we invest money in our recruits. When this worker runs away, the government will demand airfare from us. Other financial issues must also be settled before they are sent home. If the worker is arrested two years later, she will be fingerprinted and deported without punishing the person who harbored her or employed her.

There are many unofficial offices around Kuwait, and some are using social media to post vacancies. Some domestic helpers will be tempted to run away, especially those who suffer abuse at their workplaces. At the end of the day, authorities will look for the offices that brought them here," Macapudi said.

The law says a domestic help visa (article 20) can be transferred to a private sector work visa (article 18) if the employer has a business of their own. As of June 2020, there were nearly 680,000 domestic workers in Kuwait - 325,000 from India and nearly 150,000 from the Philippines. Local and their international partner agencies are allowed to charge employers up to KD 990 for hiring new domestic helpers. Employers are also obliged to pay for 14 days of quarantine at local hotels.