Following Citi FM’s series of reports on the maltreatment of some Ghanaian women working as domestic workers in the Gulf States, the Ghana Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Alhaji Said Sinare has visited some of the women in Kuwait.
The three day visit according to the Ambassador, was to have a first-hand information that could inform and influence policy decisions on such travels in the future.
“I’m doing my best and I will not tolerate this maltreatment of Ghanaians. I work for it to stop,” Mr Sinare said.
[contextly_sidebar id=”vJMv5jRzMp2BRrWbDwXDMiynEnzBt2Dl”]He also met with the Ghanaian community in Kuwait hearing about maltreatment faced by Ghanaian ladies in that country. Narrating his experience to Citi News Alhaji Said Sinare described his experience as “very bad.”
He blamed the local agents in Ghana who process these girls for the Gulf States.
He said “I don’t think our agents in Ghana are doing us any good. Because the way these girls are being mistreated in Kuwait, it is so bad this is slavery.”
He further explained that these girls are promised monthly salaries ranging from $1000 to $2000 which is far more than what they are paid when they get there.
He narrated how “a 19 year old Ghanaian girl, had her whole body burnt,” describing the burns as “a first degree burn.”
According to Mr. Sinare, the girl was abandoned by her employer and “a good Samaritan took her to the hospital.”
“She’s alive still in the hospital, still undergoing surgery and it’s so bad”, he fumed.
Alhaji Said Sinare who visited the said victim at a hospital in Kuwait described the situation as “terrible and dangerous.”
He is therefore calling for the abolishment of the ‘Visa 20’ plan which makes it possible for women from Ghana to be hired as cooks and other domestic workers to Kuwait and other gulf states.
He stated that this “needs to stop and we need to do this now. For as long as this is not stooped, the abuse by the Kuwaiti employees will still go on,” he warned.
The Ghana Ambassador to Saudi Arabia indicated that Ghana will not be the first country to stop the ‘Visa 20’ plan, citing Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire as examples of countries that have abolished this plan.
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By: Magdalene Teiko Larnyoh/citifmonline.com/Ghana