IMA Research Foundation (IMA Bangladesh ) strongly condemn the Kuwaiti Government's recent move to forcefully detain and deport migrant workers from the country when they were merely asserting their rights to wages and other issues in the labor disputes. The unjust detention and deportation of the migrant workers only condones the continuing abuses faced by migrant workers. The detention and deportation of migrant workers who have been in strike over complaints of labor rights violation is yet another major violation of their human rights.
Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: "Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection." Kuwait as a member of the United Nations should adhere to this international standard.
Is KD 8 ($32) per month as wages sufficient for workers to live in the 7 th richest oil producing country of the world? Hundreds of workers have gone on strike in recent months complaining of non-payment of salaries or delays in obtaining their wages as well as poor working conditions amid soaring prices. The protests took a gory turn when helpless workers were attacked by the authorities. Several workers were injured including three who were admitted into the ICU of a hospital with serious injuries. In another separate protest, a 30-year-old Bangladeshi also sustained injuries.
Kuwaiti police have so far arrested about 1,000 workers for staging demonstrations. On 30 July, the authorities deported the first group of 350 Bangladeshi workers who had participated in the protests. On 31 July, over a hundred Bangladeshi workers arrived in Dhaka from Kuwait after being deported over allegations of instigating labor unrest. Several hundred others who have been put in jail might also be deported soon.
One deportee said "At one stage, they attacked us at the camps and beat us up. They took us to the airport and have us boarded on a Dhaka-bound flight." The Kuwait government has also decided on 31 July not to renew residency visas (iqamas) of migrant workers in order to cut down the number of migrant workers in the state.
The government instead of protecting the migrant workers who have helped to build modern Kuwait has taken the stand that these migrant workers are a threat to state security and were bringing unnecessary international focus on the country. This is especially for those who have become victims to unethical and unscrupulous practices of companies or iqama traders.
Kuwait Times reported that high-ranking government sources said the government is determined to solve the problems through strict legal action, and reduce their numbers in the country, which has reached more than 100,000.
We strongly assert that the Kuwaiti government's move is a complete violation of UN adopted " UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN 1948. " The treatment of the workers are also a violation of The 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.
Therefore, we strongly urge the Kuwaiti government to:
• Bring back the recently deported migrant workers to Kuwait with full compensation and reinstatement of work;
• Release those who are still in custody;
• Provide the workers with a minimum standard of monthly wages;
• Provide free residence permit and health insurance;
• Provide a free return flight ticket to workers upon completion of their two-year contracts;
• Improve the workers working and living conditions.
Note: The IMA Bangladesh is calling for endorsement from other organizations on the above statement in order to protect the rights of migrant workers in Kuwait . Please send an endorsement e-mail to ima.researchfoundation@gmail.com as soon as possible. Furthermore please send your organization's letters of concern to the government of Kuwait .
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