KUWAIT: MP Safa
Al-Hashem yesterday warned the government of worse things to come unless the
government acts and resolves the demographic imbalance by deporting marginal
laborers, fighting visa traffickers and imposing fees on expat beachgoers. She
also demanded holding the minister responsible accountable for alleged
environmental violations by expats and collecting fees from expats using Jaber
Causeway to prevent "the erosion of its infrastructure".

"I have
repeatedly warned, and still do, of the existence of this number of expats -
three million compared to only one million citizens, which erodes Kuwait's
infrastructure," Hashem said. "Imposing more fees on expats is a
must, especially after the chaos and endless amounts of waste they left behind
at various beaches and parks during the Eid holiday," she charged.

She wondered
about law enforcement and the role the environment police is supposed to play
in the form of collecting immediate fines from violators. "All countries
collect fees for using beaches, including the countries of those expats
themselves, where they pay the fees," she claimed, questioning why this
was not applied in Kuwait. Hashem also alleged that expats dispose used cooking
oil in drains in Hawally, Khaitan, Farwaniya and Salmiya, which causes
environmental pollution in the absence of any action by the environment
authority.

By A Saleh