ShareVarious officials have recently made statements about expats living in Kuwait and massively insulted them. The last of these statements was the one about 'free dinners at wedding halls' which was made in an even worse way by pointing such 'accusations' only to marginal laborers. Test balloons occasionally announcing increasing fees and stiffening penalties against expats are no less insulting, at least when approaching them in a way that claims those people have been 'devouring' Kuwait's wealth and calls to deport masses of them as if they had appeared in Kuwait out of the blue!
Most officials have been using insulting phrases that indicate Kuwait has been supporting both expats and bedoons for free. A few days ago, a news story about cancelling health insurance was denied. Earlier, there was dreadful talk about allocating Jaber Hospital only for Kuwaitis. A year ago, some weird instructions were given to deport expats molesting women. Things even went as far as restricting camping to citizens.
Sweden has a population comprising of people belonging to over 200 nationalities who all receive clear written and printed instructions about the favored and most desirable conduct they ought to follow in Sweden, including taking a number to be served on doing certain transactions so that they could learn some patience and undergoing the SFI course to learn Swedish. Such measures seem to have slipped the minds of our immigration officials here in Kuwait, and consequently, we see that many newcomers act like 'Kuwaitis' do in terms of wasta, violating traffic rules and forgery, which are all phenomenal indicators of weaknesses in law enforcement. Some Kuwaiti sponsors also contribute to breaking laws if they are imposed on laborers working for them like drivers and others. That is why they are 'raised by us', after all!
Some people might argue that I have gone too far in the comparison with Sweden. Well, I have every right to do so because my government always describes itself as 'wise' in all public addresses. We have been complaining about the growth of some communities forgetting that they are 100 percent Kuwaiti-made. Expats do not get into Kuwait by force. They come in accordance to its laws with documents signed by its officials. Nowadays, Indians and Egyptians alone form 48 per cent of manpower in Kuwait (454,000 Indians and 419,000 Egyptians). These huge numbers are not matched with other nationalities and pose both demographical and security threats. Despite such facts, we are still the ones to blame because of the many illusionary companies, the enslaving sponsorship system and forging stamps and visas.
Expats' role in building modern Kuwait has been so essential since the beginning of the oil era. We cannot do without them as long as Kuwaitis refrain from doing certain jobs. Any talk about being fed up with their growing numbers should be directed to visas traffickers and forgers instead. They are the ones behind flooding Kuwait with laborers we do not actually need. So, let us stop talking with racial discrimination about them! - Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Jarida
By Mudaffar Abdullah
