Health Minister Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah

KUWAIT: A total of 5,879 expatriates have been deported since 2016 because of infectious diseases, Health Minister Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah said. Responding to an inquiry by MP Jamaan Al-Harbash, Sheikh Basel explained that the deported cases included 576 infected with AIDS, 244 with malaria, 2,068 infected with tuberculosis and 2,991 with hepatitis. He said only two cases were exempted from the health conditions set by the Cabinet's resolution number 403/2004 pertaining exempting expat spouses and children of Kuwaiti citizens infected with hepatitis.

Sheikh Basel said the deported people are reexamined at the health office in their countries and in case the reexamination results are negative, the health ministry's undersecretary is contacted to lift the ban and allow the deportee back into Kuwait to redo all tests. He added that the total number of expat administrative staff members is only four and that they do not have access to all correspondence and test results.

Irreplaceable staff

Head of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Ahmad Al-Jassar said that the commission always supports the parliament's replacement and recruitment committee to solve the problem of citizen employment in government bodies to replace expats. However, Jassar stressed that the process is going according to schedule, but remarked that expats are currently irreplaceable in the education and health ministries. Meanwhile, Jassar noted that 8,158 unemployed citizens do not have any scientific qualifications while 3,479 lack academic qualifications, whereas 2,595 have rejected jobs that the CSC have nominated them for as of the end of 2017.

Development plan

The Supreme Planning Council's Secretary General Bader Al-Refae sent a letter to Kuwait Municipality requesting approving three projects of a total value of KD 1.426 million in the 2018-2019 development plan. Refae explained that the three projects include Kuwait's fourth structural plan with a total value of KD 906,000, developing and rehabilitating landfill sites in various areas with a total value of KD 200,000 and developing Kuwait's seafront areas with a total value of KD 320,000.

By A Saleh