The COVID-19 pandemic has further increased migrants' vulnerability to deportation, mistreatment, and health problems as the Kuwaiti economy has fallen into a deep recession due to the drop in oil prices.
On February 21, 2008, the parliament approved a 120 dinar ($440) monthly pay rise for nationals in the public and private sectors after inflation hit 7.3%, a 15-year high.
The large number of domestic workers urged the rest Gulf Arab countries to follow the approach taken by Kuwait to tackle widespread abuses.
They listed the minimum salary as 60 Kuwaiti dinars ($198) a month, set out measures to implement a milestone law passed by parliament requiring employers to pay overtime for every extra hour worked.
[9] In September 2008, MP Saleh Al-Mulla demanded from Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Bader Al-Duwailah a list of companies involved in human trafficking.
[16] Since the advent of Covid-19, oil prices have been plummeted, and local jobs have been erased, so in 2020 the Kuwaiti government was considering the possibility of deportation regardless of age and health problems, approximately 460.000 Indians and 260.000 Egyptians, the two largest communities of expatriates.
[18] Another victim of the Kuwaiti government's deportation order was the Nepali migrants who faced hard times in the labor camps because of undernourishment and restriction of various social services.
[19][20] Sri Lanka made an effort with its network of 67 missions, the help of the local community and religious organisations enabled the provision of food and medicine to its expatriates as well as facilitating their repatriation and the transfer of bank savings.
[24] On October 2, 2007, Waleed Al-Tabtabaie called for the interior ministry to draw up a blacklist of employers who mistreat their domestic helpers and urged stiff penalties for physical abuse.
[25] In February 2018, the body of Filipino migrant worker, 28-year-old Joanna Demafelis, was located, found in an apartment her employers, married couple Nader Essam Assaf and Mona Hassoun.
When news of her murder reached the media, Assaf, a Lebanese national, and Hassoun successfully fled Kuwait but were ultimately arrested in Syria.
Though Kuwaiti authorities responded quickly in apprehending the people responsible for Demafelis' murder and sentenced the both of them to death, the incident ignited outrage in the Philippines and prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to ban Filipino citizens from working Kuwait, resulting in what would become known as the 2018 Kuwait–Philippine diplomatic crisis.