The intense security campaigns being conducted by security departments and the social support they receive are not only directed at expatriate labor to make sure about their compliance with residency and work regulations. Rather, they are also directed at fugitives so that the citizen and expat feel that there is no place for any violator of the law.

Security statistics show that thousands of expats were detained, while some of them were released after making sure they are not in violation of residency and labor rules and regulations, while several were deported for violation of those regulations. And we have the right to ask where did those come from?

The answer is that the citizen is the one concerned in the first place with the presence of this large number of violators due advantages given to him, which gives him the right as an individual or owner of an establishment to bring in labor from abroad via the Manpower Public Authority or the Interior Ministry; the two areas were Kuwaiti citizens go to recruit labor either based on Article 18 or Article 20 of the labor law.

Yet, this right has unfortunately been misused, and it still is despite the strict rules in these two areas and the inspection tours made on labor locations. This is what led to having security campaigns in residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural areas to make sure about expat labors' compliance with labor and residency laws. Yet, crackdowns uncovered many violators of those laws and sent them for deportation, which is the normal thing to do. But does the issue end here; by deporting the violating expat, and suspending the file of the company owned by the kafeel (sponsor)?

The truth of the matter is that the sponsor should be held to account before the expat, not only by marking the file of his company, but by referring him to court because he brought those laborers to Kuwait and left them in the street, which hurt the country's security and reputation. Those security campaigns happen under the eyes of international organization. Punishing the expat alone is a violation of the justice principle, and opens the door for some employers to continue to bring laborers and leave them in the street, instead of use them for the purpose they were brought for.

We are not talking about escaping and absconding cases, which have their own procedures and must be followed, so the sponsor releases himself from responsibility. So, will we see a serious move to evaluate the rules of bringing expat labor, and a strict system that will hold the sponsor to account, and activate measures against all those who harbor, hide or employ a violating expat? This is what we hope for. Or will matters be left as they are and we would only hear statements that do not change anything? - Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Anbaa

By Adel Al-Ibrahim