Some call it Kuwait Slave Trade, some Human Trafficking and other call it making a lot of money without the effort. So when Foreign Affairs magazine, singled out Kuwait from the world as a country with the highest number of slave trade (2006) . So what is this slave trade we hear all the time but do not see, will explain: Lets say i’m an Indian with a poor family and wanting to work in Kuwait, i contact a certain broker in India and me and others are told to pay 1000KD to get all documents needed to come and work in Kuwait. Most probably i don’t have the money so i try to work it off when i get here. But the Indian broker needs his money and even the Kuwaiti connection back in Kuwait. So my friends and family collect the 1000KD and the broker gets his share and rest is taken to Kuwait. I get my visa, reach Kuwait with a “khadem” visa. Such visa’s will not allow me to work in a establishment or business, it can only work in a residential home as a servant. So i go to my Kuwaiti contact that tells me to buzz off and find a job. Then i go roaming Kuwait finding a job or a new sponsor, most probably going to work illegally because my first year visa is non transferable (meaning cant change it to a working visa).  The Kuwaiti side of the story: I own a small 2 by 2 square meter shop in Jahra, and a wasta at Ministry of Social Affairs or “Shooun”.  I get approached by Indians in Kuwait wanting to get there family members to Kuwait, i request certain documents and a 1000KD per head. I go to my “Shooun” wasta finish my other 15 Indian nationals documents, get my 15,000KD of this month. My friend/watsa gets his share and then 15 Indians come to Kuwait looking for jobs. So guess what! lets multiply the Kuwaiti by 200 even more (15 humans! per month per year thats 180 Humans per one Kuwaiti Human Trafficker totals to 180,000KD per year in profits) and now multiply the 200 Kuwaities by 180,000KD yearly profits and you’l get a whooping 36 million KD in Human Trafficking, which i’m still talking peanuts here! No disrespect is intentionally meant to any Indian National, nor my friends in Kuwait and abroad.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 9:01 am and is filed under Enviromental & Social Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.