Global Changemakers working against modern-day slavery

Tuesday, 27 October 2009 | posted by Matt_BC
Activism, Youth work

By Yara al-Wazir

Modern day slavery: a term often confused with residency trading. It’s the million dollar industry that trades human lives. $1500 if you’re Asian, $3000 if you’re an Arab - and the customers? They’re young people desperate for a dream: The Kuwaiti Dream.

The issue of residency trading has been swept under the rug for a while now, but we can no longer walk on the rug without tripping, falling, and breaking a leg. Residency trading is affecting us all, every day. Not only can we link it to a rise in crime rate, but our youth is affected first hand; they’re growing up with less job prospects, higher rates of drug abuse, and most importantly, they’re growing up with a skewed vision of the world, one that gives them the green light to buy and sell people.

“It’s part of our tradition and culture to invite foreigners visiting our country into our home and accommodate them for 3 whole days, no matter how unpleasant they may be. Not only is residency trading violating human rights, but it’s also violating and destroying our cultural traditions” said Nawaf Al-Arbash, a BSK graduate, and one of the Global Changemakers of Kuwait working on tackling this issue.



In July of 2009, the British Council chose 10 young activists to represent Kuwait in the Global Changemakers’ MENA Advocacy and Awareness forum in Jordan. At the forum, the Kuwait team decided to start a campaign to combat residency trade. Fajer al-Rashed, one of the team members stated that we are “obliged to aware and advocate for a new sponsor system that would lead to Kuwait developing as a better nation”.

The current system in Kuwait states that each person wanting to work in Kuwait must have a sponsor to obtain a work permit. This sponsor is often the owner of a company. However, in many cases where the workers are willing to go through life carrying out small jobs with no definite contract, as they can’t find someone to sign a piece of paper stating they’ll actually pay them for what they do, they resort to a residency trader. This is a person who agrees to be their sponsor, in return for money. They are literally selling their lives, and they don’t even know what’s in store for them.

“Visa Trading is the root cause of several socio-economic problems in our society, and tackling the issue is more than just our duty. It is for our nation that we wish to excel at improving the living and working conditions of migrant workers and leading this reform in the Middle East. At the forefront of this reform are the Arab Youth: the section of society that has taken charge of combating social issues and bringing positive change to the community.“ stated Mohammed Yasir Khan, an 18 year old Economics student at University College London, and a BSK graduate, who also works in research for the campaign.

The Global Changemakers of Kuwait are working closely with the British Council of Kuwait, Kuwait’s Human Rights society, and Kuwait’s Economic society, whose board is chaired by MP Dr. Rola Dashti. The team is divided into two groups: Advocacy, and awareness.

The advocacy team, lead by Mohamed al-Bous, a Political Science graduate, has met with several prominent members of society who are also working to tackle this issue. Along with the advocacy team, the research team, lead by Yara Al-Wazir, an A-Level student at the British School of Kuwait, they have come up with a list of suggested solutions to tackle this problem, and keep Kuwait from becoming one of the worst human rights violators in the world.

Laila Marafie, who runs Left Brain Right Brain designs, and is part of the advocacy group, is working on a petition that will pressure the government and parliament to amend the law quickly and positively.
The rest of the team who went to the forum are Fahad Al-Khuzam, Asma’a Al-Qadiri, Eman Fikri and Anood Al-Dhafiri are all working in various parts of the campaign to ensure the campaign excels, and that we protect our youth, our nation, and our people.

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