21 ‘sex slaves’ arrive from Kuwait

TWENTY-ONE more Zimbabwean women lured to Kuwait under the false pretext of getting jobs as housemaids only to be sold into slavery arrived back home on Friday while seven more are at the country's embassy in Kuwait City.

The repatriation of the 21 women was facilitated by the Young Christian Women Association, a non-profit organisation, led by human rights lawyer Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda.

Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs chairperson Mr Kindness Paradza who was part of the delegation that visited Kuwait told The Sunday Mail yesterday that there was need to expand the search for other Zimbabwean women in other Arab nations.

It has emerged that some of the women could have been shipped to other Gulf Co-operation Council countries including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
"As of Friday, we had seven other women at the embassy in Kuwait awaiting repatriation. The embassy says it only has four tickets left from the 25 that were provided for by the Young Christian Women Association.

The women who arrived on Friday told us that some of their friends they went to Kuwait with were transferred to other Middle East countries," he said.
President Mugabe has since received an official report compiled by a Parliamentary delegation that visited Kuwait last month.
The report details gory details of how the Zimbabwean women were abused by some Kuwaiti nationals.

It recommends that police should withhold clearance from women without relevant educational or professional qualifications intending to apply for Article 20 (domestic work) visas to Kuwait or any other Arab nation.

It further recommends that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sets up an ad hoc Special Fund to assist in the repatriation of Zimbabwean women still holed up in Kuwait and other Arab countries.

The report also suggests that newspapers should stop publishing advertisements for domestic workers in Kuwait.

The parliamentary report titled ‘Report of the Zimbabwe delegation to the Bilateral visit to Kuwait' reads, "Statistics provided by our embassy in Kuwait showed that around 190 visas were issued by the Kuwait Embassy in Zimbabwe from July 2015 with 90 girls still to enter Kuwait.
"The Ambassador with assistance from well-wishers, family and friends, was able to assist in the repatriation of 44 maids who had run away from their prospective employers complaining of various physical abuses.

"However, to secure their release, relatives of the victims have had to fork out between $1 500 and $3 000 to compensate the "sponsor" for the cost of the air tickets, the agency fees and examination fees.

"Honourable Members may be interested to know that one girl was so traumatised from the abuse to an extent of being mentally-challenged up to this day. The girl is currently under the care of the Department of Social Welfare.

"While in Kuwait, the girl could not access medical help because hospitals refused to admit her because she had no identification particulars as her passport had been confiscated by her employer who refused to release it without compensation for the money he had initially paid to an employment agency."

The report continues, "What was disturbing, however, was that despite several appeals to head office for help, the Ambassador did not receive any response.

‘‘The only response he got from the Permanent Secretary Joey Bimha, was on April 1, 2016, informing the Ambassador that the Ministry was unable to help in any way, effectively telling him that he was now on his own."