Kuwait Bans Ethiopian Migrants and Deports Nearly 13,000 Domestic Workers
Kuwait’s Ethiopian community has become the target of bigoted accusations and vitriolic attacks following the March 16 murder of a 19-year-old Kuwaiti woman by an Ethiopian domestic worker. The young...
View ArticleAn Impossible Home: Second-Generation Palestinian Migrant in Kuwait
It is not easy trying to sum up a lifetime of experiences into one essay. I was born in Kuwait, during Iraq’s invasion. My family has lived here since the 1950’s. The invasion of Kuwait by Iraq has...
View ArticleKuwait: A question of belonging
Is Kuwait my home? Yazan al-Saadi * My parents moved to Kuwait from Syria in the 1970s, as part of the wave of migration to a country that promised opportunity and wealth. There they made a home,...
View Article“Entry Card”: The Testimony of an Egyptian Immigrant in Kuwait
Mohammed Tarik - Translated by: Saqer Almarri My mother travelled to Kuwait in 1979 after she was chosen to be sent to Kuwait as a music teacher and had married my father. The situation in...
View ArticleKuwait’s Police Stations “Crammed” with Deportees
Following the escalation of crackdowns on undocumented migrants in early 2013, Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoI) continues to detain and deport migrants in significant numbers. On May 30...
View Article“The kafala system is more than a legal construct” – an interview with Andrew...
In this conversation with Andrew Gardner, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Puget Sound, we discuss migration policies in the Gulf region. For over a decade, Gardner has...
View ArticleGulf governments abstain from Forced Labour Protocol vote
Despite the Gulf Cooperation Council’s promise to “…support the ILO’s interest in this issue, which represents one of our four strategic pillars” just last week, every GCC government representative...
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Instagram account publishes pictures of runaway domestic workers in Kuwait
One week ago, an anonymous new Instagram account was launched to “post pictures of runaway maids in the state of Kuwait,” so that “together we can eliminate this phenomenon.” The account’s profile...
View ArticleKuwait scapegoats, criminalizes Ethiopian domestic workers
Kuwait’s low-income migrants endure daily discrimination but local media and authorities tend to particularly criminalize Ethiopian domestic workers. The March 2014 murder of a Kuwaiti woman by an...
View ArticleKuwait Deports Lankans for Protesting Killing of Muslims at Home
In mid-June, 14 Sri Lankan migrants held a peaceful, silent demonstration in front of their embassy to protest the murders of Muslims in Sri Lanka; on June 15th, lynch mobs organized by the Bodhu Bala...
View ArticleLiterature as a Language for Migrants – an interview with Kuwait’s Pluma
Less than a year old, Kuwait-based Pluma is a literary migrant guild focused on migrant narratives. The group endeavors to bridge the citizen-migrant divide by encouraging informed discourse on...
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Residents not Occupiers, an interview with Kuwait’s Equait
Equait (Equality x Kuwait) is a youth initiative launched 3 years ago to tackle racism among young Kuwaitis. The project aims to encourage dialogue and show solidarity with migrants through public...
View Article“The Kafala is a System of Slavery,” an interview with the Kuwait Trade Union...
Abdulrahman al-Ghanim is the general secretary of the Kuwait Trade Union Federation. He is also in charge of the Expat Workers Office, which operates under of the federation. This office, despite legal...
View ArticleKuwait Labor Ministry Official Assaults Migrant
On August 10, al-Anba published a short complaint addressed to Kuwait’s Minister of Labor, Hind al-Sibeh. The letter shares the experiences of five Sudanese workers, who like many migrants were lured...
View ArticleKuwait’s Health Contractor Fires Striking Workers
Faraj, a health technician from Egypt, was forced to pay a recruitment fee in the form of a 1500 K.D (5300$) loan from his future employer. This was the price for a job contract with al-Awadhi company,...
View ArticleKuwaiti Officials Threaten Migrants for Suing Employer
In August, Migrant-Rights.org published a story about five Sudanese migrants working in Kuwait as security guards for al-Raed Security Company. Each took loans in order to afford 800 KD in (illegal)...
View ArticleVideo: Kuwaiti Policeman Beats Arrested Migrant
Update: The Nepali migrant worker shown in the video was arrested on September 26 for “not holding an identification card.” The policeman, Badr al-Misry, works in Sabah al-Salim police station. After...
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Kuwait: Domestic Worker Tortured and Enslaved for Three Years
Vanessa, a 25-year old Malagasy migrant, will spend her 26th birthday at Kuwait’s shelter for domestic workers. On October 1, a person (unidentified for their safety) helped Vanessa to escape her...
View ArticleKuwait to summarily deport male expats accused of sexual harassment
In its latest assault against migrant worker rights, Kuwait’s Interior Ministry has issued a directive to summarily deport expat men accused of sexual harassment. The move further obstructs workers’...
View ArticleLabor Strikes in the GCC: Deportations and Victories in 2014
The crackdowns on migrant workers in the GCC do not succeed in silencing migrant dissent. Last year, hundreds of thousands were deported, after being targeted, detained, and mistreated in the Gulf...
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