KUWAIT: Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Al-Sabeeh (KUNA)

KUWAIT: Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Al-Sabeeh, who on Wednesday faces a vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly, appears to be in a very strong position to survive the motion. Ten lawmakers filed the motion last week following a grilling in which she was blamed of failing to rectify the imbalance in the demographic structure by stopping the influx of expatriates into the country. She was also accused of committing a number of administrative and financial violations.

Until yesterday, close to 20 lawmakers have said they will back the minister and only around 12 have said they will vote against her, with as many as 17 MPs undecided but appear more likely to either abstain or support the minister. The motion needs 25 votes to pass, which appeared to have a slim chance as of yesterday.

MP Omar Al-Tabtabaei yesterday joined the group of lawmakers who said they will support the minister, saying she is capable of adopting solutions to the problems. Tabtabaei however charged that some Kuwaiti diplomatic missions abroad are involved in the problem of maids' recruitment, saying he is ready to take the issue to the maximum level of questioning.

A number of assembly panels yesterday announced they will hold meetings this week with the ministers of foreign affairs, interior and education to discuss regional developments and the problem of stateless people or bedoons. Head of the foreign relations panel MP Hamad Al-Harshani said his committee will hold tomorrow a meeting with Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah to discuss the latest regional and international developments. The committee will meet on the same day with Interior Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah to discuss a draft memorandum of understanding about security cooperation with Iraq. He provided no details on the two meetings.

The Assembly's human rights defense committee will meet on Thursday with the interior minister to discuss issues related to the problems of bedoons, head of the committee MP Adel Al-Damkhi said. He said the decision was taken during yesterday's meeting of the committee and because the central agency for dealing with bedoon issue comes under the authority of the minister. Damkhi said the meeting yesterday debated what he called oppression against bedoons, but could not come up with a fundamental solution because various government sides did not provide any proposals.

He said that a growing number of bedoons are facing problems of security restrictions against them and the so-called passports some of them bought from several countries that turned out to be fake. He said that some bedoons have been forced to sign declarations that specify they hold certain nationalities.

Meanwhile, the public prosecution yesterday submitted its memorandum regarding the opposition activists who have been handed heavy jail terms for storming the Assembly in 2011. The move will enable the court of cassation to start looking into the case by first deciding whether the activists who have been in jail for two months should be freed or not while the court hears the case. Two of those jailed are MPs Jamaan Al-Harbash and Waleed Al-Tabtabaei.

By B Izzak