By a healthy, not a political decision ... the full details of preventing the entry of Egyptians into Kuwait
Hashtags and invitations have spread on the accounts of Kuwaitis during the past few days, demanding that Egyptians not return to Kuwait from their country, under the title "# NoTravels-Return of the Egyptians" and "# Kuwait_ for Kuwaitis."
A number of Kuwaiti "Twitter" users called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in their country to prevent Egyptians from entering Kuwait under the pretext of "preventing the spread of the Corona virus."
Some individual incidents contributed to stirring up tension between the two peoples. It supported the incitement campaigns through social media, which contained the two countries in a wise manner that confirmed the strength of relations between the two sister states.
On July 30, the Kuwait Civil Aviation Authority announced a list of seven countries, including Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran and Nepal, and decided to ban travel to and from them as a precaution, so that calls for rejection and disapproval came out for not putting Egypt's name on this list.
The video of the call to burn the Kuwaiti flag came, at the end of last July, to increase the existing state of controversy, while the Kuwaiti embassy in Egypt issued a statement saying that calls spread, through video clips, to burn the Kuwaiti flag.
The Kuwaiti embassy added, in a statement, that the calls represent "a grave and rejected insult to the State of Kuwait and its national symbol that would negatively affect the fraternal relations between the two countries."
The Kuwaiti embassy confirmed that the invitations had sparked "great dissatisfaction", both officially and popularly, in the country.
For its part, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it "has recently followed up with a mixture of rejection and condemnation of some attempts on social media that seek to wedge between the two brotherly peoples, by harming the symbols or leaders on both sides."
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry stated that "tendentious parties" are behind "these abuses" to target "the good relations existing between the two sides."
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry affirmed the two sides' pride in the Egyptian community in Kuwait and the Kuwaiti community in Egypt, and that the members of the two communities enjoy all respect and appreciation, in a manner that preserves their rights and dignity, according to the ministry's statement.
In turn, the Egyptian Public Prosecution announced that the investigations with the accused in the "Burning the Flag of Kuwait Challenge" case, which caused an uproar during the past week, showed that he did not intend to offend Kuwait, but rather "to consolidate relations between the Egyptian and Kuwaiti peoples. The prosecution ordered his release after the investigations."
The prosecution said, in a statement, that "the Monitoring and Analysis Unit at the Attorney General's office monitored the circulation of a video clip of a person who had surveyed the opinion of some of the public about burning the flag of the State of Kuwait in exchange for taking a sum of money, and those polled refused that."
The statement added that "the police managed to arrest the accused, and the Public Prosecution questioned him, so he decided in the investigations that he intended to photograph the aforementioned clip to prove that the Egyptian people have principles and are not tempted by money and are not content with offending others, and that the relationship between the Egyptian and Kuwaiti peoples is a close relationship, and that is after the circulation of an incident." Assault on an Egyptian in the State of Kuwait, "during last July.
Two weeks ago, Deputy in the Kuwaiti Parliament, Safaa Al-Hashem, revealed that Foreign Minister Ahmed Al-Nasser had informed her of the Minister of Health's message, stating that a public health decision was issued to prevent entry to Kuwait from new countries, including Egypt.
Al-Hashem said in a tweet on her Twitter account: “Brother Sheikh Ahmed Al-Nasser, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, just informed me of the following message from the Minister of Health: A public health ban was issued to prevent entry to Kuwait from new countries, including Egypt, noting that there is a moratorium on issuing new residency permits, visiting cards, and issuance. Visa for all countries. "
Then comes a statement of the Kuwaiti Civil Aviation to confirm these statements after announcing in a tweet on "Twitter", that it was based on the instructions of the health authorities and given the situation and the implications of the spread of the new Corona virus regarding high-risk countries.
She added, "Therefore, it was decided to ban commercial aviation coming from the following countries: (India - Iran - China - Brazil - Colombia - Armenia - Bangladesh - Philippines - Syria - Spain - Singapore - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Sri Lanka - Nepal - Iraq - Mexico - Indonesia - Chile - Pakistan - Egypt - Lebanon - Hong Kong - Italy - North Macedonia - Moldova - Panama - Peru - Serbia - Montenegro - Dominican Republic - Kosovo) until further notice. "
Indeed, the airline flying from Egypt to Kuwait was informed that no aircraft coming from Egyptian territory would enter Kuwait.
A number of travelers wrote about their experience by informing them of the necessity to leave the airport because no plane will take off to Kuwait until further notice.
For its part, EgyptAir announced the suspension of flights to Kuwait until further notice.
Sources in the Kuwaiti government had reported to the Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Qabas, that preventing citizens of these countries from entering is a health, not political, decision, adding that most of those coming from some of these countries are domestic workers, in addition to those entering the country for the first time and needing health isolation before their work. In the homes of citizens, as well as the current health conditions in those countries.
The sources stated that the prohibition decision is subject to change and amendment, and that most countries have a list that prohibits entry to citizens of some countries until global and local health indicators are studied.