Kenya is
set to sign a bilateral labor agreement with Saudi Arabia in a bid to regulate the employment of Kenyan domestic workers
in the Kingdom.
According
to official sources within the Saudi Ministry of labor and Kenyan foreign
Affairs ministry, the agreement will be signed in the coming few weeks although
no date has been set.
The agreement
which is at its final stage will be the first between Kenya and Saudi Arabia
this is after Kenya banned employment of domestic workers in the Middle East
after a series of abuse claims by Kenyan domestic workers.
Saudi
Minister of Labor Mufarrej bin Saad Al-Haqbani,has confirmed the bilateral agreement set to be signed and he added that a joint committee from the Kenya and Saudi will meet to review the terms of the agreement.
A
source within the Saudi ministry of labor said that the are no obstacles in
signing the long awaited agreement between Kenya and that only Kenya had delay
as its completing its internal regulation of recruitment of domestic workers to
the middle east.
He added
that Kenya was facing issues of human trafficking and was investigating and
vetting recruitment agencies which had been accused of taking advantage of poor
Kenyans and engaging human trafficking.
Although
there are no details about the agreement, a source within the Kenya ministry of
foreign affairs said that the issue of salaries for domestic workers will not
be included in the pact since it is a matter between an employer and employee.
Kenyan
domestic workers in Saudi Arabia have been calling for the review of the
minimum wage for househelps arguing it should be increased from the current 900
SR to match other countries such as Philippines which has its domestic workers in
Saudi being paid a minimum wage of 1500 SR per month.
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