E/CN.4/1997/71/Add.2 page 6 country. As communication is extremely difficult, employers sometimes use brutal methods, including beating, to make themselves understood and to explain what is expected of a maid. Furthermore, Kuwaiti women are increasingly aware of the social problem raised by entrusting their children to servants with a culture, and even a religion, different from their own and allowing them, in a sense, to bring up and exert a certain amount of influence over the children. 22. One of the consequences of the method of recruiting domestic servants, the living conditions imposed on them and the problem of adaptation to Kuwaiti society and to the families with which they live is that relations between employers and employees can easily become strained. 23. Many domestic workers are faced with a dilemma as a result of the ill-treatment they experience. Generally speaking, they have contracted debts in their own countries in order to pay visa and recruitment fees. They cannot go home unless they are in a position to pay those debts and to cover the cost of the return trip, for which the employer may refuse to pay. The employer may also seek reimbursement of the money he paid to the recruitment agency (KD 400). For that reason, in addition to confiscating their employees' documents, many employers withhold three or four months' salary. 24. A domestic worker who quits his job, may therefore be accused of having stolen his employer's property. An official search is begun; he is listed as “absconded” and his photograph is published in the newspaper with the words “Please contact ...”. The employer owns the employee, who is his property and belongs to him. He can make the employee go back to work or leave him in prison, since he is now a Bidun, “an undocumented or illegal resident”, and, as such, can be imprisoned at the Dasma Administrative Centre and later at the Talha prison. He will then be obliged to pay for his own ticket home unless his embassy or the Kuwaiti Government does so. 25. Some officials admit that domestic workers are subjected to ill treatment but, despite reports made by a free press which spares neither the National Assembly nor the Government they do not recognize the importance or the seriousness of the problem. They say that, although there have been some abuses it is important not to generalize and that beatings, wounding and rape are not as frequent as claimed. It is also said that modesty makes women hesitate to speak up unless a major scandal is involved. The most frequent complaints concern non-payment of domestic workers' wages (KD 25-35) over a period of several months. 26. A communication from the Kuwaiti Government dated 13 April 1995 states: “In the legal area, it may be noted that the Kuwaiti courts sentenced to penalties ranging from a few months in prison to 10 years' imprisonment a number of persons found guilty of sexual assault on housekeepers”. 3. Situations mentioned by embassy representatives 27. The information on the situation of domestic workers gathered from institutions, journalists, NGOs, the University and surveys carried out at the Dasma Centre and the Talha prison has been corroborated by the Special Rapporteur's interviews with the officials of the embassies of Bangladesh,