High demand for Filipino workers raises costs in Kuwait

Cairo: Increasing demand for Filipino domestic workers in Kuwait has prompted hikes in recruitment costs, a Kuwaiti newspaper has reported, citing unidentified sources.

“The recruitment of workers from the Philippines now costs between KD1,400 to 1,600 per person,” a source said. ”The cost includes KD890 for the recruitment office and the rest represents the bill of institutional quarantine and the PCR testing,” the source added.

All the cost is borne by the sponsor.

The sources expected the costs to further increase due to a total two-week lockdown in place in the Philippine capital Manila running until August 20 to limit spread of COVID-19.

If a would-be employer in Kuwait seeks to recruit a domestic helper from the Philippines without help from a hiring office, the cost will drop to KD890. “But in this case, the worker would have no official sponsorship if she escaped from the employer’s house or refused to continue doing the job,” a source explained.

The Philippines enforced a ban on sending new domestic workers to Kuwait back in January 2020, after a Filipino domestic worker was sexually abused and killed by her employer.

Filipino domestic workers started to arrive in Kuwait last May and more labour flew into the country in the following two months. Ten flights are scheduled in September. More flights are in the pipeline due to the high demand for Filipino labour in Kuwait, according to the sources.