Qatar has banned 12 Kenyan job recruitment agencies. This follows following pressure from job seekers and trade unions to ensure that workers from Kenya who go to Qatar are treated better.
The list of agencies that have been banned include Starch, Anand, Sunrise, Dubai, Frame, Al Adam, Absher, Al Methaq, Resala, Altaaon, and Althabat.
Following the ban, these agencies will no longer be allowed to engage in recruiting labour or concluding contracts with employers.
Over the past few years, Qatar has become a destination of choice for low skilled job seekers from Kenya, particularly those looking for househelp opportunities. However, these jobs have come at a heavy price, with those who make it to Qatar living under constant threat of sexual abuse and outright maltreatment.
In August 2021, a 23-year-old girl from Kajiado County has arrived in the country after months of alleged mistreatment by her employer in Abu Dhabi where she worked as a domestic worker. Lillian Rimanto, returned to Kenya after eight harrowing months of trying to get back home after her employer confiscated her passport and personal belongings. She had traveled to the UAE in 2020 and had only worked for one year before she fell out with her employer.
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A report by the Guardian captured the sad situation that unconcerned job recruitment agencies subject their workers to. “The Gulf has long been notorious for labour trafficking, with the 2.5 million-strong domestic workforce particularly vulnerable to widespread physical and sexual abuse, and having their passports and salaries withheld by employers.
Underpinning this abuse is the kafala system, which prevents migrant workers from changing jobs without their employer’s consent. It can mean that women who face abuse at the hands of their employers are left trapped and facing arrest if they try to flee. Reports of East African workers being raped and tortured across the region and haunting videos of Kenyan women pleading for help after allegedly being abused by their employers saw the Kenyan government follow other countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines in banning its citizens from travelling to work in the Gulf in 2014,” the Guardian reported.