Kuwait's Generational Path to Citizenship

[WhiskeyGirl]

(Geneva) Kuwait should accept recommendations on protecting the rights of migrant domestic workers and stateless persons made today by United Nations member countries, Human Rights Watch said. The UN Human Rights Council examined Kuwaits human rights record as part of the councils Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of each nation.

Kuwaits delegation, headed by Labor Minister Mohammad al-Afasi, claimed that domestic workers received protection under employment contracts that limit working hours, provide holiday time, and require employers to pay medical insurance and aid to a workers next of kin if a contract employee dies. However, Human Rights Watch research found that contracts for domestic work are not being enforced.

The countrys 2010 labor law continues to exclude domestic workers from labor protections required for other workers. In addition, Kuwaits immigration sponsorship system traps workers in abusive employment situations by making it a violation of the law for a migrant worker to leave a job without the employers consent.

Domestic workers are unable to escape abusive employers or to seek redress even though workloads often exceed 15 hours a day, and there are frequent complaints of unpaid salaries.

Kuwait has presented contractual clauses as adequate guarantees for domestic worker rights, Stork said. In reality, these guarantees are not being enforced, and domestic workers are deliberately excluded from labor protections under the law.

With regard to stateless residents, Kuwait described the stateless Bidun in its presentation as illegal residents seeking Kuwaiti citizenship. However, many Bidun families have lived in Kuwait for generations, since the founding of the Kuwaiti state, but failed to apply for nationality at that time. Now, they cannot bring their citizenship claims before the courts because the 1959 Nationality Law prohibits judicial review of such claims. Kuwait now classifies the Bidun as residents without legal status.

The nongovernmental Kuwait Society for Human Rights has drawn attention to rights violations faced by Bidun. They frequently cannot obtain essential state-issued documents, such as marriage licenses and birth and death certificates, making it difficult or impossible for them to own property or even legally establish a family.

Invisible people?

more here - http://www.webnewswire.com/node/534180

And...some think Arizona's new law is unfair?

And, American's grant birthright citizenship to the children of folks here illegally?