15 Zim Women Brought Back From Kuwait

The Zimbabwean government has announced that they have successfully brought back 15 women who were being trafficked in Kuwait to the country.

The rescue operation comes after news surfaced of at least 200 women who were given so-called job offers in Kuwait.

However, upon arrival in the country, the women quickly realised that they were being treated as slaves and that the “agency” they had got the job through was essentially a human trafficking organisation.

After the revelations of the actual situation in Kuwait, seven Zimbabwean nationals appeared in court in Harare over allegations that they were in fact human traffickers, who promised young women paid jobs in Kuwait.

These jobs then turned out to be slavery.

One Zimbabwean news source was in contact with one of these women via WhatsApp. The woman said that they were not being paid and had not received enough food to survive. She also said that they were being beaten and harassed all the time.

According to this woman, her ‘agent’ was demanding $3000 from her family in order for her to be able to return home. Luckily, she arrived back in Zimbabwe at the end of January.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned people to be extremely vigilant about these seemingly lucrative ‘job’ offers:

“…Anything which seems to be too good to be true cannot be true,” the Ministry said in a statement. They also warned that these traffickers like to target young women, usually while they are doing something innocent such as getting their hair done.

It is believed that there are still some women being held in Kuwait and treated as slaves, with the government investigating further.