Kuwait handles slavery cases as labour or immigration offences and deports migrant women who flee abuse, a UN expert found.
Subject of this story
Also named
What happened
The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, reported (A/HRC/62/49/Add.1, dated June 11, 2026, after a September 2025 visit) that in Kuwait 'cases of servitude or slavery were investigated as labour or immigration offences, rather than as offences of trafficking in persons,' that migration law allows deportation without assessing whether someone is a trafficking victim, and that shelter screening identified only two potential victims among 1,623 women and 58 children as of December 2023, with prosecutions low. Migrant domestic workers, about 426,000 women in 2023, are tied to employer-sponsors under the kafalah system and outside routine labour inspection, and those who flee abuse are often accused of absconding, detained and deported, sometimes before their court hearings. She also reported receiving information that unaccompanied girls and young women in the Fanar shelter were subjected to trafficking and sexual exploitation, facilitated by a lack of management and oversight.
Sources (1)
Response
Not yet contacted for this story.
What happened next (0)
No outcome recorded yet.