Kuwait - special
"About a year ago, I had the promise of an opportunity to travel to Kuwait, and I was very happy with the matter. Traveling was a dream I have had for a long time. I learned from the office that dealt with him that I would work here in a restaurant in exchange for 250 dinars per month (approximately eight hundred dollars)."
Ali Salah tells part of his story for Al-Jazeera Net, noting that he had a great difficulty in managing the amount that the office requested to finish his travel procedures, which is about seventy thousand Egyptian pounds (approximately $ 4.5 thousand).
When the young Ali arrived in Kuwait months ago, the picture was not the way it was painted, as he ended up living with twenty other co-workers, who came in succession inside an apartment in the Mahboula area (south of the capital Kuwait).
After four months had passed without the sponsor extracting their identification documents, or having been able to receive their jobs, there was no escape from filing a complaint against the sponsor with the various authorities, after their condition worsened, and the daily work opportunities that were available to some of them before the current Corona virus crisis, which They had to ask for help from neighbors, and through social media to make a living.
| Resident dealers brought tens of thousands of workers (Al Jazeera Net) |
The current Corona crisis, and the precautionary measures that it imposed with it ceasing work in all economic activities, revealed an acute crisis facing marginal workers, or daily workers, who work in activities different from those they originally came to work with.
It is a problem that appears to be general in the Gulf states, which has found itself in front of a huge stream of workers pressuring various health and service facilities, at a time when it needs to provide health care to its citizens and residents according to strict requirements to limit the spread of the Corona virus.
In Kuwait, for example, the employment crisis in excess of the needs of the state triggered a flood of demands that the current demographics need to be reconsidered, and accountability for residency dealers who brought hundreds of thousands of workers to fake companies in exchange for financial amounts of sometimes two thousand dinars (seven thousand) Dollars), and they end up on the street looking for a job.
According to the figures of the Kuwait Public Authority for Civil Information for the year 2019, Kuwait has a population of 4.7 million, 30% of whom are citizens and 70% of expatriates, at 3.3 million, of whom 744,000 are domestic workers.
The Kuwaiti government was forced last week to impose a complete ban on the areas of Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh and Mahboula, after the increase in the number of cases of coronavirus among their workers, especially from Asian communities.
The population of the Mahboula region is 196 thousand people, 74% of them are Asian nationalities, 20% of Arab nationalities, 1.5% of North American citizens, and 1% Kuwaitis.
The population of the Jleeb region is estimated at 323 thousand people, 30% of them are Arab nationalities, and 68% of Asians, while the proportion of citizens is estimated at only 1%, compared to 1% of other nationalities.
| Kuwaiti Minister of Interior Visits the Headquarters to End Violating Labor Procedures (Al-Jazeera Net) |
The climate of fear in light of the current crisis provided an opportunity for those who wanted to win to attack some communities, direct the arrows of sharp criticism, and hold them responsible for what the country is suffering, especially the Egyptian community, which was considered by human rights as a form of hate speech that opens the door to racist practices that threaten the fabric of society And disturb the bilateral relations between countries.
The Egyptian Al-Wafd newspaper, through its correspondent in Kuwait, quoted the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Al-Nasser as calling his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukry, noting that the two sides confirmed their uneasiness and their complete rejection of the abusive and purposeful attempts to harm the relationship between the two countries.
The Kuwaiti government had started gradual steps since 2014 to confront the imbalance in the demographic makeup, as it prevented two years ago from appointing any expatriate in the government sector, with a plan to fully settle jobs within five years.
According to international human rights expert Ghanem Al-Najjar, Kuwait and the Gulf states in general are rentier systems in which production is not a priority, and at the same time it gives those in power with powers to bring in labor that the country does not need, and large tenders also provide an opportunity to attract thousands of workers without an actual need.
Treatment requires - according to what Al-Najjar told Al-Jazeera Net - restricting residency dealers and punishing them, and that punishment is not limited to closing companies because a large part of them are essentially fictitious, and it is also important to address the problem of the absence of taxes in rentier systems, whether on the citizen or resident, and the transition to an economy Multiple sources.
Last March, Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Anas Al-Saleh issued a decision to grant residence violators an opportunity to leave the country without paying any fines or incurring travel costs, while providing the opportunity for those who wish to return to the country legally again, a deadline that began Early this month and continues until the end of it.
The five days allotted to the Egyptian community witnessed that about six thousand Egyptian residents settled their conditions in preparation for leaving.
| Standing on the street in search of a living is no longer possible in light of the spread of Corona (Al Jazeera Net) |
And local reports indicate that an investigation has been opened with many companies on accusations related to the residence trade, and the Minister of Interior announced on Thursday that one of the officers was arrested for suspicions of the involvement of a company owned by him and others in human trafficking.
The former minister and member of the National Office for Human Rights, Ali Al-Baghli, believes that the crisis of "loose" employment is behind them, who are the traffickers of residency owners of fictitious companies. On the cash reserve in light of the significant decline in oil prices.
Al-Baghli told Al-Jazeera Net that these factors pushed the state to deport violators from these workers, who no longer have a source of livelihood in light of the cessation of all economic activities, but he expressed his refusal to mix between bulk employment and others who work in specific jobs.
He also said that certain nationalities should not be targeted or affected by the dignity of these workers who came to earn a livelihood, because the responsibility rests with the residence merchants whose penalties must be modified in Kuwaiti law, so that the crime of trafficking turns from a misdemeanor to a felony.