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Activists seek compensation for Kenyan workers killed in Middle East

DETAINED: Thirty-four-year old Elizabeth Wanjiru in a house where she has been locked by her employers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the last two months. She is appealing to the government to rescue and fly her back home.
Image: COURTESY

Nairobi, Kenya  | THE STAR KENYA | Haki Jamii Rights Centre and Kituo cha Sheria say they will move to the High Court seeking compensation for Kenyans killed or maimed while working in the Middle East.

The activists embarked on the process of filing public interest litigation in the court following an increase in the cases of torture and detention in the foreign countries.

This comes barely two days after more than 50 women were flown into the country from Saudi Arabia, where they had been held hostage for years.

According to Karobia Kiratu from Haki Jamii Rights Centre, the rising cases of abuse in the Middle East countries were worrying.

Karobia said the current issues had been turned from employment ventures to human trafficking leading to the ongoing abuse.

“We want the High Court to stop the ongoing human trafficking and where possible we shall seek compensation for all those who died while working in these countries,” he said.

Speaking in Naivasha, Karobia identified the case of Lucy Wambui Muigai who died in Iraq in unclear circumstances and her remains were interred without the family’s knowledge.

He said that initial investigations indicated that there were hundreds of Kenyans migrants who were being detained and tortured without the knowledge of the government.

“The government does not have any data indicating how many people are working in these countries due to secrecy by the agents and we want the court’s intervention on the same,” he said.

Karobia also said that the only solution in addressing the current crisis lay with Kenya signing a human rights charter with countries where the migrants are working.

“The process of flying out the workers is opaque with the agents denying the workers the right to information and access to their employment contracts and passports,” he said.

Last year, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection said that more than 100 women had died in the Middle East in the last two years.

Majority of the victims died under mysterious circumstances, amid allegations of rape and torture in the foreign countries with efforts by families to get justice hitting the wall.

According to the Labour Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui, the ministry was keen to resolve the incidents by making sure that those who flew out registered with the relevant embassies.

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SOURCE: THE STAR

 

One comment

  1. The government should rescue it’s nationals who are stranded or traffiked in the middle east countries.

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