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About 238 Kenyan migrant workers have died in the Gulf countries in the last three years, Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore has told Members of the National Assembly.

When she appeared on Thursday before the lawmakers to respond to queries touching on the status of the Kenyans working in the affected countries, Bore said the deaths occurred between January 2020 and November 2022.

MPs learned that 185 people lost their lives in Saudi Arabia between January 2020 and November 2022. Forty eight of the deaths were reported in 2020, 60 in 2021 and 77 last year.

In the United Arab Emirates, 45 deaths were reported from 2020 to December 2022. Of the fatalities, 10 were reported in 2020, 17 in 2021 and 18 deaths in 2022.

In Qatar, 53 Kenyans also lost their lives, 26 of the deaths having been reported last year. “There were varying causes of death ranging from homicide to illness but we were able to notify the next of kin of the reported cases through our established channels,” stated Bore.

In her presentation before the National Assembly, Bore said that the major challenge to Kenyan migrant workers, especially those undocumented and without the requisite legal residency permits, was access to healthcare which had also contributed to high number of deaths.

Unpaid wages

The CS disclosed that so far, 175 disputes had been reported by Kenyan migrant workers in Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia this year.

The disputes she said range from residency IDs, unpaid wages, change of employer, workload, exit after concluding an employment contract, medical treatment, injury, being held in recruitment agencies, accommodation without being allocated employment, extension of contracts, runaway employees and travel documents.

“A total of 121 cases were resolved involving parties in conflict and the Saudi authorities where necessary. A total of 97,173 Saudi Riyal were subsequently recovered and paid to the respective parties,” added the CS.

Bore said they had come up with a raft of recommendations to protect migrant workers.

Harrowing experiences

According to her, although they had signed a bilateral labour agreement with the Saudi Kingdom on the recruitment of domestic workers, they were currently reviewing it to address emerging labour and employment concerns.

In addition, she said, they had drafted the Labour Migration Management Bill, 2023, which seeks to promote safe, ethical and orderly recruitment and safeguard the rights and welfare of migrant workers.

“A multi-agency technical committee with representation from the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Foreign and Diaspora Affairs and Office of the Attorney General have prepared amendments to the Agreement and the same has been submitted to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for consideration,” Bore explained.

A report released early this year by the Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ), popularly known as the Ombudsman, detailed harrowing experiences that migrant workers working in Saudi Arabia have been going through.

In the report, the Ombudsman disclosed that the major forms of abuses experienced by Kenyan migrant domestic workers in Saudi Arabia include, passport confiscation, physical and sexual abuse, sleep deprivation, food deprivation, labour exploitation, movement restriction, imprisonment prior to deportation, racism, religious intolerance and psychological abuse.

“To ascertain the veracity of the above allegations contained in media reports, the Commission carried out a systemic investigation suo moto to interrogate why Kenyans working as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia were predisposed to abuse regardless of the measures that were adopted after the 2014 ban and the consequent Bilateral Agreement,” the report reads in part.