Ministry helps human trade by ignoring visa traffickers – Forced deportation ‘illegal’ KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor virtually helps human trafficking in Kuwait since it watches as a moot witness even when visa traffickers continue to bring labor forces into the country. This was stated by a top unionist who also accused the ministry of “throwing out” expatriate workers after suddenly realizing that the labor market has become disorganized. In an interview published by Annahar yesterday, Kuwait Trade Union Federation member Abdurrahman Al-Ghanim said that the country lacks a clear policy regarding its labor market despite the fact that many developmental plans were on and efforts were being made to transform the state into a commercial hub in the region. Moreover, Al-Ghanim, who is also the President of the Expatriate Labor Forces Office in the KTUF, argued that the MSAL’s activities were going against the state’s general direction. “How can there be expansive construction activity and more restrictions against expatriates at the same time? Who is going to build Kuwait then?” he questioned. The interview comes days after the United States Department of State released its 2013 Trafficking in Persons Report, which listed Kuwait in the Tier Three countries that have not been able to make any significant effort to meet the minimum standards of compliance set by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, a 2000 law aimed at prevention and prosecution in cases of human trafficking. According to Al-Ghanim, a policy that divides expatriate labor forces into those that the state wants to keep and others it wants to kick out is doomed to fail. “Instead, Kuwait needs a system that separates the wheat from the chaff; one that replaces the kafeel (sponsorship) system and opens the door for the market to stabilize by organizing itself through contracts signed as per legal controls,” he stated. Regarding deportations, Al- Ghanim said that forced or ‘administrative’ deportation is illegal because it is unorganized, and called for procedures to regulate this process “and guarantee the right of an expatriate worker to challenge his or her deportation order through panels whose job should be to investigate complaints.” He further insisted that reducing the population of expatriate labor forces must be based on a clear strategy “instead of announced percentages.” These statements were in reference to an announcement by the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Thekra Al-Rashidi last March in which she said Kuwait will deport 100,000 foreigners this year as part of a plan to cut the expatriate population by one million within a decade. In response to criticism from the Human Rights groups inside and outside Kuwait, Al-Rashidi later identified ‘marginal labor forces’ as the target of the plan. “Most of the so-called marginal labor forces are victims who sold everything they had back home to follow a false dream woven by those who made them believe that they have a chance to come to the land of opportunity and wealth,” Al-Ghanim said. “The real question should be to look for the ones who recruited these workers and brought them to Kuwait”. The sponsorship or ‘kafala’ system contains loopholes that are often used by visa traffickers to release work permits in the name of fake companies or nonexistent job openings, then sell them to unskilled labor forces looking for a chance to work in the oil-rich Gulf region. Human rights violations resulting from these practices have drawn criticism from international organizations in the past few years. There are nearly 90,000 people living illegally in Kuwait, according to official figures. Crackdowns on illegal residents resulted in hundreds of arrests in the past two months, but there have been no reports pursuing traffickers who sell visas obtained illegally to labor forces. Kuwait is home to 2.6 million expatriates who account for 68 percent of the country’s 3.8 million population. Marginal labor forces are workers who usually accept menial labor and often live without valid visas, and are in most cases victims of visa traffickers.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 20:18:38 +0000
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