Expatriate labor shelter in good condition

KUWAIT: Islamist opposition MP Mohammad Hayef yesterday said he plans to file a "heavyweight" grilling against Interior Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah unless he makes the necessary reforms. Hayef said he believes the grilling will be too "tough" that the minister will not be able to face and urged the minister to carry out the necessary reforms and halt violations.

The lawmaker said the grilling will be based on three issues: Security issues that include human rights violations and administrative and financial violations and a third issue that he said will only reveal when he files the grilling. If the minister does not take the necessary measures to start resolving the issues, the grilling will be filed in time to be on the agenda of the next session early in April, MP Hayef said. Earlier this week, 10 MPs filed a no-confidence motion against Minister of Commerce and Industry Khaled Al-Roudhan following a marathon grilling over alleged financial and administrative violations.

Meanwhile, head of the assembly's human rights panel MP Adel Al-Damkhi yesterday praised the humanitarian conditions at the domestic helpers shelter in Julaib Al-Shiyouk, saying the conditions there are excellent.

Damkhi said after an inspection visit to the shelter that some 400 domestic helpers are housed in there as they wait to be deported from the country. The lawmaker said the committee studied the conditions at the center and recognized the shortcomings and these will be included in a report following meetings with concerned officials. He also called on authorities to try to cut the waiting period for laborers at the shelter and urged for resolving some humanitarian cases there.

In the meantime, head of the assembly foreign relations committee MP Abdulkarim Al-Kundari called on the foreign ministry yesterday to make a clear position towards the second murder of a Kuwaiti citizen in Egypt in the past four months. He said the ministry should openly explain the situation and if there was need to highlight the security conditions in Egypt and if there was a need to warn Kuwaitis against travel there. He said that the second victim was murdered almost in the same place and under similar conditions and accordingly the foreign ministry must issue a statement to explain the situation.

By B Izzak