Kuwait - This week (9/8) IOM Kuwait and partners organized a workshop to introduce government officials from the Public Authority for Manpower’s (PAM) Government Shelter for Foreign (female) Workers to a Labor Exploitation Index.

The Exploitation Index is derived from the Delphi Methodology, which seeks to identify human trafficking indicators through a consensus of experts. This methodology was developed in 2008 by ILO, based on two electronic surveys of European trafficking experts.

The shelter, which was established in 2014, has the capacity to hold up to five hundred women, but usually accommodates around 300 at any given time. Almost 100 percent of the residents were previously domestic workers in Kuwait.

It provides residents with basic services, including food, accommodation, medical and legal assistance. Some of the women need additional help, particularly if they wish to return to their home countries or seek employment with new sponsors in Kuwait.

But due to the large number of shelter residents, it is often difficult to recognise the individuals who have the greatest need for assistance and may have been victims of human trafficking.

In the absence of a standard to assess the level of exploitation of shelter residents, the Exploitation Index will help shelter staff to identify victims of trafficking and rate each individual on the exploitation scale in order to identify priority cases.

Women will be interviewed by shelter staff and asked to describe their recruitment process in their country of origin and their working conditions in Kuwait. Specific indicators will identify them as victims of trafficking.

Head of the Shelter Falah Al Muteiry said: “Integrating the Exploitation Index into our shelter procedures is an essential step. We want to ensure that we are able to target our services to the women who need it the most. Before the end of this year we are aiming to assess every resident in the shelter using the index.”

The workshop was conducted as part of the Joint Program for the Support of PAM, implemented by IOM, UNDP and ILO. The Joint Program operates under the guidance and with funding from the General Secretariat for the Supreme Council for Planning and Development.

For further information, please contact Mohamed El Zarkani at IOM Kuwait, Tel: +965 993 94157, Email: melzarkani@iom.int