KUWAIT CITY, Aug 14: A group of Indian Sikhs have founded the ‘Sulaibiya Gurdwara’ (Sikh Temple) in Sulaibiya that is clearly visible on Google Maps and Google Earth, what is considered illegal, shocking and surprising, reports Al-Rai daily.

The temple, located off the Fifth Ring Road, is a place reserved for a company in the Sulaibiya residential area, and is proof of another violation of the sanctity of that residential area. Freedom of belief is absolute. The State protects the freedom of religion in accordance with established customs, provided it does not conflict with public policy or morals.

The temple was founded nearly nine years ago and where thousands of Indians from the Sikh community practice their religious rituals, cook and distribute foods in clear violation of the Constitution, which states in its Article 35 that “Freedom of belief is absolute. The State protects the freedom of practicing religion in accordance with established customs, provided that it does not conflict with public policy or morals”, but the religions speak of the people of the Book – Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

This Sikh temple is a plot leased from state property as a warehouse for a company, and the owner does not have the right to lease it for use for anything other than its intended purpose.

This opens the door for questions: Will this lead to a series of similar violations by other sects that might allow them to establish places of worship away from the eyes of the state, and how will the relevant government agencies act against the Sikh temple?

Source: Arab Times

Illegal measures taken against expats

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 14: The State Audit Bureau has issued a report concerning evaluation of the efficiency of government procedures aimed at curbing the spread of marginal workers.

The bureau conducted evaluation of Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) in terms of the mechanism followed in bringing expatriate workers in Kuwait based on the estimated needs in both private sector and oil sector. It also studied the procedures adopted by PAM for implementing the eighth item in the sustainable development plan that targets enhancement of economic development.

The report included observations on some procedures that violate the International Declaration of Human Rights. It stated that these violations include collecting money from the workers in order to bring them to Kuwait for work – a phenomenon referred to as “Residency Trafficking”.

The report included other observations related to hiring workers for hard jobs that do not match the job description in the work permit.

The report affirmed that many of these violations were committed under the sureness that the laborers cannot complain due to their urgent need for work. It also highlighted violations related to mistreatment of expatriate workers especially marginal workers to the extent that some sponsors humiliate, insult and beat their workers as well as seize their passports.

The report elaborated on illegal measures taken against expatriate workers such as preventing them from traveling to their home country, and slackness in resolving disputes involving expatriate workers by the relevant committees, as well as the violation of preventing expatriates from working for different sponsors if they refuse to continue working for their first sponsor, in addition to the violation of non-payment of end-ofservice indemnity to expatriate workers.

It specifically pointed out the violation of discrimination in payment of salaries based on nationality of the workers instead of their job, and highlighted violations related to abuse of laborers, and assigning them to tasks outside the specified working hours.

The report insisted on the negative effects of residency trafficking particularly on the security aspect due to increase in the number of marginal workers, considering the cultural differences and lack of education. It linked the low salaries with the tendency for some workers to resort to practicing illegal activities including crimes for earning extra money.

The report stressed on the economic consequences of increase in the number of expatriate workers in Kuwait, as it increases the unemployment rate among Kuwaiti citizens. This is especially considering the fact that the private sector prefer hiring expatriate employees due to many factors such as easier way of dealing with them, relatively low salaries, and higher productivity compared to Kuwaiti employees.

By Fares Al-Abadan Al-Seyassah / Arab Times Staff

Source: Arab time

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 13: Professor of Clinical Psychology at Kuwait University and Family Advisor at Ministry of Justice Dr Amina Al-Sammak says Kuwaiti families suffer from psychological and social problems caused by psychological factors such as disappointment, abstention from getting married, and even suicide, reports Al-Rai daily.

She explained that the brain of woman functions differently from that of a man. Fights between couples lead to non-reproduction.

The students of some schools in Kuwait suffer from psychological disorders caused by sexual transition and bullying. This is due to many psychological factors that require cooperation and combined efforts to find clinical psychological therapist to treat students who are negatively affected psychologically.

Dr Al-Sammak said Ministry of Justice assists in solving many problems that may occur between couples, adding that most of these problems erupt over simple reasons.

Source: Arab Times

‘No official has right to cancel debts’

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 13: The Council of Ministers stresses on the need to collect debts owed to the government by people who benefit from the government services by all ways and to the extent of taking legal if need be, reports Al- Anba daily quoting senior government sources.

The sources said these debts are public funds payable without any complacency, inaction or concession. The sources pointed out that no official has the right to drop off debts that exceed more than 5 thousand dinars or even exempt part of them.

The sources denied the existence of any tendency to study the cancellation of some debts without referring the issue to the Council of Ministers. The sources revealed the government has approved several measures to increase the collection of these debts and prevent the accumulation. One of the most important procedures is to go for automatic link between the ministries to help collect the debts before agreeing to provide a new service, and to coordinate with the Public Authority for Civil Information to provide data of those who owe debts, and to provide multiple facilities in payment instruments.

The sources confirmed that the adoption of the system of prepayment before providing new services has greatly contributed to the nonaccumulation of more debts owed to the government. The sources pointed out that the government has obliged the ministries to submit a report twice a year, including details of their efforts in the area of collecting money owed to the government complete with statistical data on the money collected and the outstanding amount.

In response to a question about exempting government employees upon retirement or exempting the heirs upon the death of the employee from debts owed if it is less than 5,000 dinars, the sources said, it is organized according to the decisions issued by the Council of Ministers and circulars issued by the Ministry of Finance, which includes the conditions and controls required before submitting an application. The exemption after the submission of the application must be submitted for study to the Fatwa and Legislation Department and must be approved by the Minister of Finance before exemption.

Source: Arab Times

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 10: The Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) has suspended the processing of several transactions for one week in order to update the system, reports Al-Qabas daily. According to PACI, the processing of these transactions will resume on Aug 14. It disclosed that the suspended transactions include automated services such as completion of birth data, renewal of civil ID for Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis, updating the names of non-Kuwaitis, registration of domestic workers and dependent visa.

Source: Arab times

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: An official issued by the Egyptian Statistical Authority revealed that there was an huge increase in the number of Egyptians who entered Kuwait during 2018, by more than 8,000 per month, which means that Kuwait was receiving about 270 Egyptians per day in 2018 reports Al Rai. 98,000 new work permits were issued to Egyptian nationals while permits were renewed for another 132,000.

Kuwait came second (after Saudi Arabia), in terms of permits issued to Egyptians to work in the Arab countries by 230,000 permits, including 221,000 males, and about 9,000 females, which constitute about 22.1 percent of the total work permits in the Arab countries .

Sources said that the number of permits issued to the Egyptian degree holders coming to Kuwait, is about 65,000 while permits issued to the non graduates averaged 11,000, and below qualification 91,000, and non educated 63,000.

These figures mean that only 28 percent of the 230,000 people who have been issued or renewed work permits have a university qualification, with the remaining (about three-quarters of the number) divided between average and below or without.

Saudi Arabia ranked first in the group of Arab countries in terms of permits, with 515,000, which constitute 49.2 percent of the total work permits in the Arab countries, distributed on 170,000 work permits for the first time, and 344,000 renewed permits. 
The official report confirms that the recent figures are much higher than the previously announced figures, the latest of which was published by Al-Rai on July 11, citing a statement of the Directorate of Manpower in Cairo, that it receives 5,000 monthly wishing to work in Kuwait to review their contracts and document the required documents and documents until The visa is obtained in cooperation with the Embassy of Kuwait in Cairo.