Signing of MoU between Kuwait, Ethiopia to take time

The specialist in domestic labor affairs Bassam Al-Shammari said the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Kuwait and Ethiopia on the recruitment of domestic workers from Addis Ababa will take time and cited the long documentary cycle as one of the reasons, reports Al-Rai daily.

This will take at least three months before a domestic worker from the African country will set foot on the Kuwaiti soil saying one of the terms of the contract that will be signed between both countries is demanding the presence of an Ethiopian female translator working with recruitment offices.

The Minister of Justice and Minister of State for Integrity Affairs Jamal Al-Jalawi recently discussed with the Ethiopian Minister of Labor Ngusu Gerimanuel the final touches to the draft memorandum of understanding on this issue, the daily reported quoting the sources.

In a statement to the daily, Al-Shammari said that “recruiting the secretary only and printing the residence permit for her takes more than a month,” explaining that “in the event of signing the memorandum of understanding, the first batch of Ethiopian domestic workers will not arrive in Kuwait at least before 4 months, due to the length of time of the documentary cycle.

He added that “90 percent of the cases of escape of domestic workers were due to the unequal salaries between different nationalities,” stressing the need to educate people about the correct way to deal with domestic workers, in order to avoid problems between the two parties.