LATEST EXPAT LABORER PROTEST: HOODWINKED

UNCLAS KUWAIT 002030 SIPDIS DEPT FOR NEA/ARPI E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM ELAB PGOV KU SUBJECT: LATEST EXPAT LABORER PROTEST: HOODWINKED PAKISTANIS MARCH ON THEIR EMBASSY REF: A. KUWAIT 1732 ¶B. KUWAIT 1729 ¶1. (U) Expatriate workers in Kuwait held the latest in a series of protests on their home-country diplomatic missions May 14 as hundreds descended on the Pakistani Embassy. Approximately 300-400 Pakistani laborers protested their current employment condition outside their embassy. According to Aamir Hasan, Labor Officer at the Pakistani Embassy, the workers arrived in Kuwait in November 2004 with legitimate visas issued by the Kuwaiti Embassy in Islamabad. They were not notified by GOK officials until after their arrival in Kuwait that their sponsoring company did not exist, leaving the would-be workers without employment, housing or means to subsist. Press reports indicate that each worker had paid an average of 1,500KD ($5,200) to a recruitment agency in Pakistan to be placed with this phantom company. ¶2. (U) Hasan said that the workers first contacted the Embassy in March 2005 for assistance. The GOK offered to allow the laborers to return to Pakistan without paying a fine or being banned from returning to Kuwait. The workers refused. They came to Kuwait to work and intend to remain, especially since many are deeply in debt after paying agency fees. The Pakistanis demonstrated peacefully, some chanting slogans, arriving at the Embassy at 9:00am and not leaving until 2:30pm. ¶3. (U) This protest followed the April 24 march on the Bangladeshi Embassy during which approximately 800 workers demanded payment of back-wages from their cleaning company, 100 of whom entered the chancery causing damage and injuring two bystanders (reftels). Comment: Expatriate workers now feel emboldened to publicly demand fair labor treatment, which may lead to an increase in protests. Within days after the Bangladeshi attack, the GOK forced the company to pay those due backwages, established a hotline for worker complaints and enacted new laws to fine companies for late salary payment. End comment. ********************************************* Visit Embassy Kuwait's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ You can also access this site through the State Department's Classified SIPRNET website ********************************************* LEBARON