‘Mideast nations must recognize domestic helpers’ rights’

MANILA, Philippines – Middle Eastern countries should recognize, guarantee, and protect the rights of domestic helpers and uphold the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) recent adoption of the Convention on Domestic Workers, a migrant workers group said.

“The slave-like outlook about domestic workers in the Middle East must be changed, first and foremost,” said Migrante-Middle East official John Leonard Monterona. “This is what the ILO Convention on Domestic Workers had told the host governments.”

Monterona, in a press statement on Saturday, said nations that host foreign domestic workers should either pass local laws or set policies that recognize domestic workers’ rights and welfare.

Middle Eastern countries currently host around 25 million domestic workers from Asian countries, according to Migrante.

The ILO convention will test nations in the region because most of the Gulf Cooperating Council (GCC) member-countries have reservations in recognizing domestic helpers’ rights, which they see as running counter to their “customary practices and traditions,” Monterona said.

“Kuwait, for example, opposes the granting of day-off and specific the working hours for domestic workers,” he added.

He cited the media statement of a Kuwait social affairs ministry official, who was reported to have said that granting days off and specific working hours to domestic workers “does not suit the habits, traditions and public ethics of Kuwait.”

The Kuwaiti official said a maid who goes to a place unknown to her sponsor during her day-off is seen as an offense to Kuwait’s public ethics.

“It has been known that other GCC countries and non-GCC governments also cited ‘preserving tradition and modesty of maids’ as reasons to restrict domestic workers freedom of movement and giving them day-off, among others,” Monterona said.

He added that the rights of domestic workers should not be viewed as a threat to host-countries’ traditions. –abs-cbnNEWS.com