Market forces apply
Photo by Jan Krömer
The number of ‘runaway and absconding’ maids looking to earn attractive salaries in mixed-gender shisha cafés has increased sharply in Kuwait, even though the owners of the cafés are aware that the maids are violating residency laws by running away from their sponsors, according to a story in The Arab Times citing an Al-Shahed daily report.
Al-Shahed apparently said that this situation had occurred ‘due to the absence of tough security controls which has in turn been contributing to the aggravation of such negative phenomena and irregularities’.
Mixed-gender cafés in the Salmiya and Hawally areas are said to have contributed to the ‘huge presence of absconding maids who ran away from the houses of their sponsors’.
A law enacted by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor does not permit the employment of women in shisha cafés.
Many of those with investments in shisha cafés, the majority of whom are expatriates, were seeking to maximize their profits by increasing the presence of women in their cafés, according to the Times.
They were said to choose ‘certain types of maids’ to work for them at salaries exceeding KD200 (US$833) per month.
The absconding maids happily agreed to work as they didn’t require work permits or visas.
