Abdulhameed Dashti

KUWAIT: The public prosecution yesterday ordered detaining MP Abdulhameed Dashti for 10 days starting from the day he is arrested over a case filed against him by the Saudi embassy in Kuwait. Dashti is currently out of Kuwait, and an arrest warrant was already issued to arrest him as soon as he steps foot into Kuwait. Notably, both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have filed state security cases accusing Dashti of undermining brotherly relations among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states.

Malawian workers

The advisor of the immigrant labor committee at Kuwait Human Rights Society (KHRS) Abdul Rahman Al-Ghanem urged the Ministry of Interior (MoI) to investigate reports published by the Malawian media about selling female Malawians in Kuwait and forcing them work in prostitution. Ghanem urged the ministry to take such stories seriously to protect Kuwait's image as a 'humanitarian center.' Ghanem also called for activating law number 91/2013 pertaining with human trafficking and immigrant smuggling and to take it more seriously to make sure people committing such crimes would not get away unpunished.

"Kuwait passed law 91/2013 as a leading one in fighting human trafficking and people smuggling in the Arab region, but in view of the spread of visa trafficking, it is not enforced enough and need to be activated to protect immigrant labor rights," he underlined. Ghanem added that represented by the Manpower Public Authority, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MSAL) had referred 51 suspects to the public prosecution over charges of abusing workers in 2014 and that it had also referred 34 others over charges of human trafficking.

"No verdicts have been so far issued against any of those suspects," he remarked, noting that the public prosecution had described the charges the suspects are facing as violating personal liberty rather than 'forced labor', and accordingly, they were punished according to the private sector labor act and other penal laws instead of law 91/2013.

Ghanem stressed the importance of developing the skills of judges, investigators and police officers in handling human trafficking cases through proper training, conferences and workshops. He also urged the media to keep playing a basic role in boosting public awareness about this crime and its danger and to boost awareness of immigrant laborers, namely domestic helpers, in various languages to help them avoid falling victim to such crimes.

Ghanem said KHRS will soon launch an awareness project under the title "Together to Enlighten Immigrant Laborers about their Rights in Kuwait" in several languages to help laborers develop enough knowledge about their rights and provide them with legal consultancy to contribute to reduce violations of their rights as well as to improve the image of human rights in Kuwait.

Mosque blast

The Cassation Court yesterday postponed passing its final ruling in the Al-Sadeq Mosque bombing case until May 30. Notably, on Sept 15, the comprehensive court had previously sentenced seven suspects to death, acquitted 14 others and sentenced eight others to 2 to 15 years in prison. Separately, a case was filed against a female citizen slandering Bedouins in a video she posted on social media networks that has been circulating over the past few days.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi