In an interview with local daily Al-Rai, Al-Tamimi called for amending the private sector labor law in a way that would provide more security and guarantees to the half million domestic workers in Kuwait, who comprise about 20 per cent of the population. He stressed the need to protect the rights of all expatriate workers, asserting that the sponsorship system has led to their being exploited and deprived of their basic rights. He also condemned some sponsors’ refusal to allow their employees to be sponsor ed by others.
The prominent human rights activist stressed that women have achieved remarkable progress in various social, economic and political fields in Kuwait, but added, ‘Nevertheless, some laws are still prejudiced against women, such as the right to have housing care, civil rights and child custody rights," he explained.
The main aim of [the KHRS] is to spread awareness of international human and labor rights among the people and to emphasize human and all basic rights and freedoms for both citizens and expatriates’, Al-Tamimi stated, explaining that the society works closely with its peers abroad and that it has resolved many problems reported to it, including workers’ complaints against their sponsors and bosses.
The information mentioned in the US State Department report about human trafficking in Kuwait is true and we have to take it seriously, along with other human rights organizations’ reports," he said, calling for making use of the information and working constructively on rectifying the situation of expatriate workers in Kuwait, including domestic staff, whose conditions he described as "not ideal.
Al-Tamimi pointed out that the Kuwaiti government has admitted to the existence of such problems and that MPs have discussed them in parliament.
There are some violations on the sponsors’ side, such as not paying salaries to thousands of those poor people who only get very low wages, inhuman accommodation conditions and various others," he stressed.
