HYDERABAD: When a Kuwaiti Instagram star slammed new laws improving conditions of Filipino migrant workers in her country, she not only invited backlash from media but also gave an insight into the way locals or kafeels think or treat migrant workers.
Sondos Al Qattan who has 2.3 mn followers on Instagram recently posted a video where she said, “These contract (new laws) are a mere comedy. I am told about the conditions of the contract and I am shocked. The maid asks for a break every five hours. But how can one keep a maid at home and not keep her passport? (sic)”
Al Qattan was also upset because the amended law would allow her servant to be out of her house for four days a month. “She goes out one day a week and works for six days which brings her total days out to four a month, and one ha no clue what happens dure those days when her passport is in her possession,” she said.
The post has caused a global outcry on social media with many including migrant rights group demanding a public apology. Others called for brands, that Al Qattan represents, to drop her. Indeed, the criticism didn’t go unnoticed and many brands dropped her soon afterwards. One of the brands, Max Factor, said it would suspend all work with al-Qattan. However, Al Qattan remained defiant in her response saying that she had never “..in the present or the past, mistreated, degraded or in any way mistreated an employee”.