MP Kamel Al-Awadhi

KUWAIT: MP Kamel Al-Awadhi yesterday called on the Interior Ministry to suspend all residency transactions for the Indian community in retaliation to the Indian Embassy's KD 700 deposit rule for domestic helpers. Awadhi, who has been campaigning against the Indian embassy decision, called on the interior ministry to suspend family visits for Indians living in Kuwait, but insisted that he "respected Indians".

The row was triggered after the Indian embassy in Kuwait implemented a decision by the Indian government that every employer of Indian domestic helpers must deposit KD 700 at the embassy to ensure regular payment of salaries and fair treatment of the workers. Awadhi said that Kuwaiti authorities should not allow the Indian embassy to act as a court and let disputes be solved by the Kuwaiti judiciary.

The lawmaker, who was director of the immigration department, was commenting on an answer by the foreign ministry to his question about the Indian embassy's behavior. He said the foreign ministry said that the question is outside its authority. Awadhi said that the embassy should take the deposit from the recruitment offices and not from Kuwaitis, describing the practice as a violation of Kuwait's sovereignty.

In a related development, the head of the expatriate office at the Kuwait Trade Union Federation Mubarak Al-Ardhi said yesterday the office will continue to defend the interests of foreign workers in Kuwait and will focus in the coming phase on the abolishing of the kafeel or sponsorship system. He said the system breaches the standards and principles of the International Labor Organization, human rights, public freedoms and democracy, and also the norms and morals of the Kuwaiti people, who totally reject oppression.

Ardhi said the union considers the scrapping of the kafeel system as a first step towards reforming the domestic labor market as some people have exploited the system for visa trading and achieving quick and illegal profits at the expense of poor expat laborers. This policy has led to a large increase in the number of unskilled, marginal workers, consequently endangering the security of the country. Ardhi also said the union will press for the implementation of the new domestic helpers' law to safeguard the rights of this section of people.

By B Izzak