BBC, KTV to produce film on Kuwait labour conditions

CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE: The BBC and KTV plan to make a documentary about labour conditions in Kuwait. (Getty Images)

British broadcaster the BBC is to produce a documentary on labour conditions in Kuwait following a US report slating the Gulf state for its lack of action to protect expatriates from exploitation and stamp out human trafficking.

The programme will be done by BBC Arabic in partnership with Kuwait Television (KTV) and will include interviews with numerous high-profile officials, state news agency KUNA reported on Saturday.

Presenter of the documentary Najla Al-Omari said authorities would not interfere in production of the documentary, entitled 'The Truth Commission', KUNA said.

Al-Omari said the programme would "reveal the truth behind this issue [of foreign labour]", according to KUNA.

In its annual 'Trafficking in Persons Report', released earlier this month, the US State Department said Kuwait remained a "destination and transit country for men and women for forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation".

The Gulf state is in the bottom 'Tier 3' of the State Department report's ranking of global efforts to tackle human trafficking.

The report said Asian migrant workers were "subjected to conditions of forced labour, such as restrictions on movement, unlawful withholding of passports, non-payment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse".

The State Department said the government of Kuwait had not made any significant efforts to comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and had not achieved any of the commitments it had previously made on stamp out trafficking.

Kuwait has rubbished the report's findings, claiming that it has criminalised all forms of human trafficking and that it provided assistance to victims.

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