Decrease in cost of ticket reservations for maids in Kuwait

With the return of activity at Kuwait International Airport with receiving daily flights from all countries of the world, the boom in the domestic labor recruitment market has increased in light of the limited available requests and the high volume of need from Kuwaiti families and residents in the country, reports Al- Qabas daily. Following continuous complaints from citizens about the increase in the cost of ticket reservations for domestic workers due to the lack of travel movement, the domestic labor market witnessed a clear breakthrough in the prices of reservations, which decreased significantly.

During the past weeks, it went down by more than KD 450 for workers coming from Manila for direct reservations of those vaccinated with the approved vaccines and are allowed to book outside the framework of the “Salama” platform. The daily monitored the situation of the domestic labor market during the past days

Reduced
Bassam Al-Shammari, the owner of a domestic labor recruitment bureau, affirmed that the cost of flight tickets have reduced again, revealing that the reason is the opening of direct flights to the country by several airlines, and the entry of other airlines to provide transit flights with a short waiting period. He said, “The offices are currently implementing reservations for new contracts through the “Salama” platform, especially since a large percentage of workers did not receive vaccinations, or providing other reservations through sponsors for those who vaccinate workers before their arrival in Kuwait”. Regarding the number of new contracts, Hussein Marzouk, an administrative employee in a domestic labor company, said the recruitment of workers from the Philippines is still limited despite the return of work since June.

Contracts
He stressed that some offices are able to provide contracts with a total of 150 requests per month, which is a low percentage compared to the number of requests from citizens for domestic workers, while other offices provide workers from India, Sri Lanka and other countries, but that is also limited. Regarding the reasons for the low prices of one-way tickets, Muhammad Al-Omran, an employee of a travel office at Kuwait International Airport, said there are conditions set by offices concerning some types of tickets for domestic workers, including the inability to return them or change the date of reservations except with fees or what is known as fines, adding that the tickets of some flights have a higher price but changing the travel schedule would be free.

Al-Omran indicated that the problem of domestic workers and their reservations are many, especially when it comes to medical tests, security approvals and others. He added, “Their reservations are constantly changing, which leads to losses”. Al-Omran highlighted the application of regulations and laws in their reservations, where sponsors or domestic labor offices are alerted that tickets are nonrefundable, or fines and payment terms will be applied in case of change of dates.