Kuwait finds cockroaches, crowded rooms at delivery firm housing

Picture coming home after a long shift on a delivery bike, only to share one small room with several other men, cockroaches running across the kitchen counter. That’s what inspectors from the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) say they found when they walked into accommodation run by a delivery company in Kuwait.

The workers living there are the same men you see every day carrying food and packages across the city. Their housing is supposed to meet basic safety and health standards under Kuwait’s labour laws. This time, it reportedly fell short.

This comes only weeks after Kuwait brought in a tighter crackdown on delivery riders over traffic violations, so the sector is already under close watch from more than one direction.

What the inspectors actually found

PAM’s Occupational Safety and Labor Relations teams carried out the visit together. Their job was to check whether the accommodation met occupational safety and health requirements, the basic rules every employer in Kuwait must follow for staff housing.

The authority didn’t go into every detail publicly, but it confirmed the accommodation failed to meet those standards. Each team is now handling the issues that fall under its own area, PAM said, which suggests different parts of the problem, from hygiene to overcrowding, are being dealt with separately.

So what happens to the company now?

The Occupational Safety team will issue the delivery company a formal notice. This notice requires the firm to fix whatever was flagged during the inspection, from the pest problem to how many workers are housed in one room.

PAM hasn’t published a strict deadline or named the company, and it’s not yet confirmed what penalty, if any, follows if the firm fails to act. What is clear is that the authority sees this as an ongoing compliance issue, not a one-off warning.

This isn’t the only recent action against companies falling short of their duties to workers. Kuwait has also moved to shut the files of firms that don’t pay salaries on time, and authorities in Farwaniya recently shut illegal businesses and arrested workers during a separate sweep. Together, these actions point to a wider push to clean up how some employers treat their staff.

Why this matters if you live in Kuwait

For expat workers, especially those in delivery and similar low-wage jobs, this story is a reminder that housing conditions are not just a private matter between you and your employer. PAM has rules, and it does act on them.

For citizens and residents who order food or packages daily, it’s worth remembering the person at your door often goes home to accommodation provided by the company, not something they chose themselves. Conditions there affect their health and, indirectly, the service you get.

Employers, meanwhile, should take this as a signal that accommodation checks are part of the same oversight as salary payments and work permits. Kuwait has also been looking at related issues this year, including a proposed cap on how many workers of one nationality a firm can hire, all part of tighter scrutiny on how companies manage their staff.

How to report a violation yourself

PAM specifically urged workers to come forward if they’re living or working in similar conditions. The authority wants reports made through its official channels so it can act.

1. Note down the issues you’re facing, such as overcrowding, pests, or missing safety equipment.
2. Use PAM’s official reporting channels, rather than relying on your employer to fix things informally.
3. Keep any evidence you can, such as photos, in case it’s needed later.
4. Follow up to check a notice or inspection has actually happened.

Kuwait has expanded several reporting tools recently. The Sahel app, Kuwait’s official government app, now lets workers report 8 types of labour violations directly, and the ‘Report Me’ service now covers cases where a mandoob, or company representative, asks workers for extra money. These tools exist because PAM says it wants more oversight, and that depends partly on workers speaking up.

You can read more Local news from Kuwait on similar labour and housing stories as PAM continues its checks.

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