US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT2030

UNCLAS KUWAIT 002030 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR NEA/ARPI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, ELAB, PGOV, KU, Labor 
SUBJECT: LATEST EXPAT LABORER PROTEST: HOODWINKED 
PAKISTANIS MARCH ON THEIR EMBASSY 
 
REF: A. KUWAIT 1732 
     B. KUWAIT 1729 
 
1. (U) Expatriate workers in Kuwait held the latest in a 
series of protests on their home-country diplomatic missions 
May 14 as hundreds descended on the Pakistani Embassy. 
Approximately 300-400 Pakistani laborers protested their 
current employment condition outside their embassy. According 
to Aamir Hasan, Labor Officer at the Pakistani Embassy, the 
workers arrived in Kuwait in November 2004 with legitimate 
visas issued by the Kuwaiti Embassy in Islamabad. They were 
not notified by GOK officials until after their arrival in 
Kuwait that their sponsoring company did not exist, leaving 
the would-be workers without employment, housing or means to 
subsist. Press reports indicate that each worker had paid an 
average of 1,500KD ($5,200) to a recruitment agency in 
Pakistan to be placed with this phantom company. 
 
2. (U) Hasan said that the workers first contacted the 
Embassy in March 2005 for assistance. The GOK offered to 
allow the laborers to return to Pakistan without paying a 
fine or being banned from returning to Kuwait. The workers 
refused. They came to Kuwait to work and intend to remain, 
especially since many are deeply in debt after paying agency 
fees. The Pakistanis demonstrated peacefully, some chanting 
slogans, arriving at the Embassy at 9:00am and not leaving 
until 2:30pm. 
 
3. (U) This protest followed the April 24 march on the 
Bangladeshi Embassy during which approximately 800 workers 
demanded payment of back-wages from their cleaning company, 
100 of whom entered the chancery causing damage and injuring 
two bystanders (reftels). Comment: Expatriate workers now 
feel emboldened to publicly demand fair labor treatment, 
which may lead to an increase in protests. Within days after 
the Bangladeshi attack, the GOK forced the company to pay 
those due backwages, established a hotline for worker 
complaints and enacted new laws to fine companies for late 
salary payment. End comment. 
 
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LEBARON