KUWAIT CITY, Sept 4: The Ministry of Interior has referred nine new issues of human trafficking to the Public Prosecution, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Sources familiar with the issue said those involved in human trafficking are individuals and companies who allegedly brought the workers into the country under the employment of fake companies.

The same sources indicated each visa is sold for between 2,000 and 1,500 dinars, depending on the nationality of the person.

The sources pointed out the human rights activists played a big role in helping the security authorities unearth this illegal activity, and asserted Kuwait continues to fight all forms of human trafficking.

Source: Arab Times

Families go home as Kuwaitization, rising living costs dig in

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 3: With the “boom” that led to high rental value several years ago, owners of residential buildings (landlords) made major changes and resorted to apartment partitioning, as they divided rooms that were comfortable for tenants into small partitions, which can only be described as “sardine cans”, reports Al-Rai daily.

This move by the landlords was aimed at capitalizing the rental value they receive from tenants, especially in buildings that were on the banks mortgage, as the rent of partitioned apartment increased by about 30 percent.

Real estate expert Abdul-Aziz Al-Dugheisham affirmed that greediness to increase their income led many landlords to change the partitioning of apartments in every floor and resorted to making smaller partitions in order to capitalize on rents, completely ignoring laws that oblige them to adhere to partitions as approved by the municipality.

Al-Dugheisham noted this move was adopted by many landlords in 2011 when the rental value witnessed a significant increase due to the market boom at that time, especially in buildings once mortgaged by the banks, as landlords who were urged to complete their mortgages as soon as possible used various skewed methods to do so.

The expert affirmed that many landlords got disappointed with the decline of rental value, because their tenants were going for apartments having moderate rental value, which were bigger than the so-called “sardine cans”. He explained that tenants took this step, because the supply of real estate is higher than the demand, which again has been affected by various factors such as Kuwaitization and high living cost that is forcing many expatriates to return their families to their home countries to enable them focus on savings.

“Many landlords have sustained major losses equivalent to what they may have earned several years ago when the real estate market was thriving, and now they have significant choices to make, especially after many landlords have reduced the value of rent in order to attract tenants”, Al-Dugheisham noted.

He pointed out that several landlords resort to wicked methods defying the law in order to capitalize the rental income, such as manipulating the architectural plan of the building and reducing the size of rooms or even partitioning an apartment in a manner that produces two apartments – even if it’s at the expense of the tenant’s comfort. Currently, most landlords are faced with hard choices.

The first choice is to wait until the demand in the real estate business outweighs the supply for the rental value to increase, something which is almost impossible to happen due to the current policies implemented against expatriates.

The second choice is to restructure the partitions of the apartment to its original architectural design, and the third choice that could be more suitable than the other two is for landlords to opt for rent reduction in order to attract tenants (the majority of whom are currently bachelors) looking for cheaper accommodation irrespective of the size of the rooms in the apartment

Source: Arab Times

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 31: The issue of a second wife, which surfaces from time to time with the issuance of statistics, indicates that most Kuwaiti men are satisfied with just one wife. The law grants citizens the right to have more than one wife but the natural tendency of Kuwaiti citizens is not inclined towards polygamy, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Professor of Psychology in Kuwait University Dr Hamoud Al-Qasha’an explained that 99 percent of men in Kuwait don’t prefer polygamy due to many reasons. In the past, husbands represented a social guarantee for their wives and played an economic role in their lives. However, women these days spend money on their husbands.

There is a social dimension to this. Some wives impose pressure on their husbands to stay away from men who have more than one wife.

He revealed that there are only 15 men who are married to four women in Kuwait, which is not a big number.

Meanwhile, lawyer Abdurrahman Al-Torfa said the law is one of the most important factors behind the trend of one wife for each man, because of the weakness in the legal situation for the man due to marital expenses that cost the husband more than his capability.

Source: Arab Times

HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah during a meeting with the visiting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi – KUNA photo KUWAIT CITY, Aug 31: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, accompanied by a delegation of officials, arrived in Kuwait on Saturday beginning an official visit during which he would hold talks with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. The Egyptian president was welcomed at the airport by His Highness the Amir, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanim, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and other senior State officials. Source: Arab Times

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 28: The results of a poll conducted by the e-newspaper ‘Elaf’ on the percentage of decline of confidence in social networking sites showed it has dipped to the lowest level based. The percentage reading was from 0 to 100, reports Al-Rai daily.

The poll was based on government’s confronting lies with laws, and the poll reinforced what Al-Rai had published about the progress of Kuwaiti lawmakers in drafting a law to counter the fake and abusive accounts on social media.

A total of 707 readers participated in the referendum, and a vast majority, estimated to be 328 readers, or 46 percent of the total participants, said their confidence in the social media posts has fallen to a very low level of about only 10 percent.

A total of 181 readers, 26 percent of respondents, said they had 50 percent confidence in what was published in social media, while 25 percent said their confidence had dropped to zero. Nineteen readers or 3 percent of the total respondents said they trust social media to a certain extent.

Thus, 71 percent of readers showed confidence in the social media between 0 and 10 percent. While on the decision of the lawmakers to submit a draft law to contain the illusory and abusive accounts on the social networking sites MP Khalil Abul told the daily the idea of the proposal is to ban abusive accounts because they undermine the social security and spread chaos.

Source: Arab Times

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 26: State Minister for Economic Affairs Mariam Al-Oqail said the Civil Service Commission (CSC) issued a decision in 2001 to regulate the employment of Kuwait University and Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) students during summer vacation, affirming these students are not banned from working while studying in the aforementioned academic institutions, reports Al-Shahid daily.

Also, in response to a parliamentary inquiry, the minister pointed out that according to CSC’s rules, an employee is not allowed to take another job. She then explained that the vacancies shown in the final statement of the ministry are for functional degrees, not certain professions.

Source: Arab Times