In an exclusive telephone interview with your electronic daily Guinéenews, the Ambassador of Guinea to Kuwait, Mamady Traoré returned extensively on the situation of our distressed countrymen in Kuwaiti homes. The Guinean diplomat with the Kuwaiti Government also gave some explanations related to the Kuwait Fund from which our country benefits in the context of the realization of certain road infrastructures. Read!
Guinéenews: What about the situation of our many compatriots who have left the country and who work in households in Kuwait?
Mamady Traoré: Our sisters who decided to come to Kuwait to work there, arrived on the basis of a contract they concluded with people who are with us in Guinea. They are either Guineans or Sierra Leoneans called sponsors. These sponsors work with existing offices in Kuwait. Offices that are officially set up to help Kuwaitians get immigrant workers. So our sisters come to Kuwait in this context. They are not abandoned as is often thought. The reality is that at the time they are recruited, they don’t know exactly what they have to do here as a job or whether they know it, but once they get to Kuwait, the job they’ve been hired for is not what they’re doing. Clearly, when they arrive in Kuwait, they are servants in Kuwaiti families, precisely for the Kuwaiti wives as surface technicians at home. During their recruitment at Conakry, they were told that they would get a very high salary of up to $1,000 and others that they came just to take care of the children at home. These are works that are not binding... It is important to clarify that the Embassy is not at all involved in this recruitment. Nor are we informed of the steps taken to recruit them. It is when they arrive in Kuwait that we are informed late of their presence and it is when there are problems in the families where they work that they seek to contact us...
Guinéenews: What was your reaction when you learned about the existence of these “human trafficking” networks?
Mamady Traoré: Listen, Kuwait has more foreigners than Kuwaiti. I'm telling you that the offices are officially located here. So we can't talk about networks as such. On the other hand, between them and those who recruit them in Guinea, we can talk about networks.
Guinéenews: Have you ever passed the information back to the Conakry authorities?
Mamady Traoré: Of course, I wrote a letter that dates back more than two to three months to inform the Department of Security and Civil Protection of the difficulties we have in managing our sisters. We are not involved in their recruitment. But as soon as they have problems, they come to us. We have proposed solutions to the Department of Security and Civil Protection to put an end to the massive departure of our sisters from Conakry to Kuwait to serve as servants. So far, I have not received a reply. When I was recently in Conakry as part of the signing of a loan agreement for the realization of our exchangers, I took advantage of it to meet the Minister of Security and Civil Protection but very unfortunately, he was on a mission. I met with his Secretary-General, to whom I also explained the conditions in which our sisters live in Kuwait. It must be said that there are many who are there, but those who do not endure, they are the ones who flee and come to the Embassy. I don't know if they're good or abused. I never went into a family because I don't have the right. I can only come when the heads of family invite me. In fact, all those who do not come to us are supposed to do so because they accept working conditions. I have proposed to the Ministry of Security and Protection to ban our sisters from leaving until arrangements are made in connection with the Embassy to organize their recruitment. However, my fellow ambassadors from Benin, Senegal and Togo have done the same to their governments and arrangements have been made in this direction. Today, they have virtually no problems.
Guinéenews: Are there any of our sisters who are victims of rape?
Mamady Traoré: I am not aware of such a case. That's my first news. None of them told me that she was raped. Many of them returned to Conakry. At the moment, we have 16 girls who are in trouble. Six of them are housed in the centre where the procedures are carried out before returning to the country because they fled their employers. So we need to take steps... There is also one named Fatoumata Touré who fell ill when she was even about to return to the country. She had seizures. According to doctors, she has a slightly contagious disease so she must spend about a month in the hospital before she returns to Guinea. There is a third, named Mariama Soumah, who will also enter as soon as she is on her way. It should be noted that there are dozens of Guinean women who are working in families who have never come to us. It is when they are in a state of no longer continuing their work that they will come to us.
Guinéenews: What about the exchangers project, whose work will be funded by the Kuwaiti Fund?
Mamady Traoré: I must say that I am very happy that this loan agreement was signed just a few months after I took office here in Kuwait. I have succeeded in convincing my interlocutors at the Kuwaiti Fund of the necessity and urgency of the implementation of this project, even if it burns steadily. I am all the more pleased that this signature will pave the way for its realization, which will relieve the people. Because it will undoubtedly contribute to streamlining or decongestioning traffic in Conakry, which is facing huge traffic jams. Indeed, one of the three partners or sponsors of the project had to take the first step in order for the others to follow. This was done on 21 June 2018 in Conakry with the Kuwaiti Fund. Everything leads to the belief that the Abu Dhabi Fund, which has already been contacted and reassured by the Kuwaiti Fund, will quickly take the lead. There is a good chance that the project will start before the end of the year or at the very beginning of 2019, once the tender is completed. Kuwaiti and Abu Dhabi funding is for the exchangers in Hamdallaye and Bambéto. While Cosa and Enco 5 will be funded by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the third partner to commit.
A telephone interview by Sékou Sanoh for Guinéenews.