SLAVERY was abolished 150 years ago, but bonded and forced labour, trafficking and exploitation persist.
Domestic workers who run away or committ suicide as a result of unpaid wages, confinement to the house, deprivation of food and sleep, exhausting working hours, verbal or physical and sexual abuse by their sponsors have become the order of the day in most Gulf countries such as Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Typically, these women find jobs through labour recruiters in their home countries.
Many of these have been known to trick women with false promises.
Quite often, once these women arrive in their host countries to work as housemaids, they discover that labour laws do not apply to them and that there is little help available if they feel exploited or violated in any way.
A 26 year old-Zimbabwean woman, Beauty Makore, who ran away from her employer in Kuwait, bared it all on how she suffered in Kuwait for three months.
Makore was recruited through the Kafala system — a legal sponsorship that ties the employment and the residency of a domestic worker to a specific employer.
The system requires all unskilled labourers to have an in-country sponsor, usually their employer, who is responsible for their visa and legal status.
“My papers were facilitated by one agent, Marodza, who is based here in Harare.
“My employer was the one who paid for all the fees, from visa fee to air tickets.
“I was told I was going to be a housemaid working normal shifts of eight hours and get paid US$250 a month.”
“Ndakaona kuti zvirinane stereki, ndaizokwanisa kuchengetawo mhuri yangu.”
Makore left for Kuwait in March 2016, expecting a better life for her and her family back home.
But it was not as rosy as the agent had said it would be.
Upon arrival in Kuwait, her cellphone was seized, she had no communication with anyone, even back home.
“Working conditions were deplorable as I would work for 14 hours — from six in the morning till two in the morning of the next day.
“I had no time to rest.
“I would work for undefined hours and I was not given days off.
“Chikafu chaicho ndaichishaya (They did not give me food).
“Sometimes I would survive on their leftovers.”
Housemaids (migrant domestic workers) in Kuwait work an average of between 78 to 100 hours a week cleaning the house, cooking and caring for children and sometimes doing extra duty in the houses of their employer’s relatives.
Makore said because of the exhausting work hours, she became ill, suffering from migraine headaches and a stiff neck but was denied medical attention.
“My employer told me point blank that I could not go to hospital. She told me that I had to be strong, after all I am an adult, only children go to hospital.”
She had to put up with it as she wanted to fend for her two children and husband back home but little did she know that she might not even get her salary.
“Come month-end, it was now a hassle to get my salary.
“She would give excuses, one after the other.
“Imagine I had to cry to get my salary.”
And Makore never got the US$250 promised. She was paid 70 Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD), which is equivalent to US$230.
“But mari yacho yaive shomesa tichitarisa hupenyu hweku Kuwait.
“And it was not worth the long working hours.”
She said there are many cases of non-payment of salaries.
“Some employers withhold salaries for months, even years, at a time until ‘their debt’ is paid off.
“Many inflate it to include food, clothing and other expenses.”
Makore said housemaids under the Kafala system cannot leave their employers or switch jobs.
“The employer basically says I have had to make an upfront investment to bring you over, I have to pay the agent’s fees and your air tickets and visa fees, so l need to protect my investment.”
“House maids,” she says, “are not classifieds as labourers. They are classified as slaves.”
“Basically, if you are a housemaid, you are a slave and they would call us ‘kadama’, which means slave.”
She said passports were confiscated by the ‘sponsor’ on arrival.
“This makes it very hard for domestic workers to do anything or make a police report without papers,” Makore said.
“You lose that work permit status if you ‘run away’ from your ‘employer’ and face detention and deportation.”
But Makore had had enough; in June 2016 she ran away from her cruel employer.
“Ndakaona kuti chero ndikada kushingirira ndogona kuzofira kuno better kudzokera hangu kumusha.
“I asked around, that’s when l was told about where the Zimbabwean embassy was.
“I sought refuge there and was later sent to the shelter which was already accommodating about 25 Zimbabwean women in the same situation as mine.
“With the help of our Government, our papers were processed and after two weeks we were brought back home.”
More than 200 Zimbabwean women have been sent to Kuwait under the disguise of better job opportunity.
Approximately 60 women have returned home through the help of the Zimbabwean embassy, NGOs and individuals.
This trafficking of vulnerable women to Kuwait reminds Africans about the Arab slave trade of 19th Century which abducted 28 million Africans to the Middle East and 11 million to the Western world.