E/CN.4/1997/71/Add.2 page 8 that supply manpower and domestic workers in order to establish a common policy. It has also been suggested that an act setting a minimum wage for employees of cleaning agencies, guards and domestic workers should be adopted; that the regulations governing residence permits (for workers, the work permit takes the place of a residence permit) should be changed; that the repatriation of those who wish to return home, or who are obliged to do so owing to illness or lack of a visa, should be facilitated; and that the situation of shepherds should be improved. The latter are the most neglected category of workers: they live in inhuman conditions, have no contact with the city, and are supplied with food by their employers only once every two weeks, even though the law explicitly prohibits the employment of shepherds unless their contract stipulates that they are to be provided with food - a requirement which employers blithely ignore. So-called seasonal fishermen also live in sub-standard conditions in makeshift huts near Doha. 32. The Philippines is a major exporter of manpower to Kuwait, where 55,000 Filipinos, including 28,000 domestic workers, of whom 15,000-20,000 are illegal, are employed. Domestic workers are recruited by illegal agencies in the Philippines; although the exploitation of workers has been prohibited by its Government since 1988, 25-30 persons without visas are recruited each month, for a fee, by private agencies. Philippine domestic workers are in the greatest demand because they are the most educated, and they command higher recruitment fees than nationals of other countries. Recruitment agencies charge KD 450-480 for Philippine housekeepers, whose monthly wages are KD 45-65; consequently, their employers are more demanding, a fact which leads to stress and violence and causes the workers to run away. Because domestic workers from the Philippines are more educated than others, they display more confidence and protest ill-treatment and abuse, a fact which irritates employers and leads to incidents, some of which are tragic and are exposed by the press. Domestic workers from other countries, owing to their level of education and to the language barrier, are less likely to complain. 33. The Philippine embassy maintains a shelter that houses about a hundred domestic workers in breach of an expulsion order issued at their employer's request after ill treatment, violence or rape or because they are pregnant or ill. Most of them are women; of the 102 cases mentioned during the Special Rapporteur's visit, only one involved a man. While it is estimated that 60-70 per cent of those who take refuge at the embassy do not tell the whole truth, there are photographs of domestic workers sporting black eyes. Some point out that it is comforting to realize that the Kuwaiti authorities are, at least, aware of such lapses and willingly cooperate with the embassy; an example of this cooperation is the recent opening of a Kuwaiti embassy in Manila. 34. There are 80,000 domestic workers and 20,000 skilled workers from Sri Lanka in Kuwait; the latter are protected by the country's labour legislation, but the former have serious problems. Employers often refuse to arrange for the issue of a residence permit, even after two or three years of service and, generally speaking, these workers, most of them women, cannot go home without that permit. They are sent to the Dasma Centre, where two or three months pass before their cases are dealt with.