Kenya’s Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) has asked the government to ban employment agencies in the country that are sending migrant workers to Saudi Arabia.
This is after a viral video appeared to show a Kenyan woman breastfeeding dogs in the Gulf country.
The BBC has not verified the authenticity of the video.
But speaking to reporters on Sunday, Cotu Secretary-General Francis Atwoli said the woman, who had left a two-month-old baby in Kenya, was compelled to breastfeed the puppies by her employer.
“I want to appeal to the administration to go the way the first government under former President Mwai Kibaki did. He banned all employment agencies in Kenya,” Mr Atwoli said.
The union leader asked President William Ruto to stop the “indirect slavery” of Kenyan migrants and negotiate for their welfare with the gulf countries.
High unemployment rates in Kenya has prompted young people to migrate to gulf countries in search of jobs as domestic workers and labourers.
Many migrants have reported mistreatment in the Middle East and most recently in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.