Those being deported have demonstrated against the abuses they are forced to undergo, in the face of the threat of losing their residency permit as a consequence of being deprived of a work contract.

Kuwait City (AsiaNews) - Kuwait has expelled a thousand workers from Bangladesh, believed to be responsible for violent protest demonstrations, but at the same time it has announced a law against "visa merchants" and the exploitation of foreign workers, the factors that unleashed the workers' protest.

Last week, hundreds of employees of Kuwaiti businesses unleashed a series of demonstrations to ask for better labor conditions and fair pay. The motives of the protest include forms of sexual violence suffered by women who act as domestic workers. This phenomenon, together with that of forced labor, was denounced in June in a report from the U.S. state department on the condition of workers in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar.

There are about 200,000 workers from Bangladesh in the Gulf countries, mostly employed for cleaning services or as security guards.

In announcing the expulsion of the "violent" protesters, the Kuwaiti minister for social affairs and labor, Bader al-Duwaila, emphasized a series of initiatives undertaken after a meeting with the parliamentary committee for human rights. According to the state news agency KUNA, the minister said that his country "will not tolerate violence", but will also "cut off the hands" of the "visa merchants". In order to enter the country, in fact, one must have a work contract. Those who lose their jobs, without having another one, also lose their residency permit. This gives rise to the "market" of those who offer real or fictitious jobs, and then force employees to suffer extremely harsh conditions of work and life, or extremely low pay. The penalty, in practice, is expulsion.

In announcing a meeting of the committee for September, Duwaila added that the government has discussed the proposal of raising the minimum wage of those who work as security guards to 70 dinars (about 265 dollars) and of cleaners to 40 dinars (151 dollars) from the current 30 (114 dollars).

Meanwhile, at the airport, there will be officials to guarantee that the "no more than a thousand" Bangladesh workers being deported receive at least the remaining balance of their pay.

• kuwait
• bangladesh
• workers
• laborers
• expelled
• deported
• protest
• demonstration
• exploitation
• sexual
• violence