I have a caption from the Sunday Mail of 15th May 2016. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Country Director was talking about supporting the women who are stuck in Kuwait. This is only after the Speaker had done something and only after the Press Conference yet these stakeholders have just been sitting quietly. We urge IOM to make sure that these girls are brought back into the country.
We also urge the media not to do the type of reporting that they are doing now because it is uncalled for and it stigmatises the survivors. That is why at times you find that sometimes they do not want to speak out and remain with whatever information that could actually help in the future other women who would want to go to these greener pastures because once they say anything, the media will blow it out of proportion in a negative way.
Mr. Speaker Sir, after all I have said, I have made more recommendations to complement the recommendations that I had made earlier on when I gave notice of this motion. I am therefore recommending that:
- Government expedites investigations through its inter-Ministerial Committee and ensure urgent repatriation of all the women who are currently stranded in Kuwait under slavery conditions.
- Perpetrators of these acts must face the full wrath of the law.
- The Ministry of Home Affairs must urgently conduct awareness programmes on human trafficking and educate the unsuspecting public, especially the youth about the dangers of human trafficking.
- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should urgently write to the Kuwait Foreign Affairs Ministry requesting Kuwait authorities to ban the issue of Article 20 Visa, which talks about the Kadama, which stipulates that once you have been issued with this visa and you step into Kuwait, automatically you have become a slave and if you run away, you are actually convicted as a run-away-maid. So, we urge the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to engage their colleagues in Kuwait.
- We were requesting Kuwait authorities to ban the issue of this Article 20 visa, which allows Kuwait employers to hire Zimbabwean citizens under slave conditions. I think they can have a different visa altogether that is flexible and user friendly for the women whom they want to work for them. I have also added some recommendations that;
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