By Ahmad alsarraf

The unforeseen annual income which the “dishonest” citizens generate from the visa trade is between $3 billion and $5 billion, and like any illegal trade, eliminating this is not easy as long as there is demand for it.

It is wrong on the part of those who believe that the imprisonment of an officer or the conviction of a visa trader will stop this exploitation under the prevailing laws.

There is unemployment in the laborexporting countries, and there is a need for the service of these people in other countries, and this equation will remain unfair if the government does not move quickly and put solutions to it, and I hope that His Highness the Prime Minister will share my concerns, my pains and my hopes for a better tomorrow.

alsarraf

I think no law is better than bad law, as the laws regulating work are defective, and do not cover all cases of exploitation of a person. All previous governments, with or without intent, have played a role in the spread of the phenomenon of trafficking in human and this has brought to the fore their indifference to the living conditions of millions of workers who for the past thirty years at least have paid a high price to get a job in Kuwait.

The Tenders Law requires the Tender Committee to award any service contract or supply of goods at “lowest prices”, whether the commodity is an onion or a human being. How is it possible to accept the award of a cleaning contract in the amount of 70 dinars for a worker, for example, and the cost of bringing him on the plane, housing, feeding, transporting and returning home cannot be less than 100 dinars, for example?

Does the responsibility fall here on the contractor or the government while the latter knows very well the miserable living conditions that these and others will live, however it has done nothing. This example includes many other activities (nurses, guards, and porters).

Kuwait can be a model to follow in its dealings with human beings and the worker’s income must not be less than a certain limit. The policy of bringing hundreds of thousands of workers annually on government and other contracts should not continue without checking their housing and living conditions, assuming that they are needed.

Why do we bring in thousands of workers to serve our airports? Why do we need the presence of tens of thousands of mobile and fixed groceries and “ice cream” vendors and others outside the system of known sales outlets from cooperative societies and supermarkets?

Why do we need all this number of ‘sleeping guards’, when there are automated systems that can perform the same service better and at a lower cost? Why does the army of state employees, often unemployed, need an army of porters to serve them? A drink dispatching machine at every corner of a ministry can do much better work.

I used to deal in foodstuff years ago, and on the day the municipal inspector visited us to inspect the stores. I warmly welcomed him, and this raised his doubts. I asked him to do his job, and when he came back, I told him, listen my son: “I ask you to bear with me a little, you are the eye for the safety of the food I and my family eat, so maybe you found or will find someone who will pay you a bribe to turn a blind eye to violation, but you will commit a crime against yourself and your family, and you will not benefit from the money you get.

The unfit food that you turned a blind eye will one day enter your home, and you and your loved ones will consume without knowing, and your health will be affected and the money you got will do nothing.”

If the government wants to favor a person, or buy his loyalty or his vote then it has dozens of ways to do so, and we are not guardians of it, but it is a fatal mistake to do so through two tracks: naturalization and labor trafficking, then the price of this was and will remain severe and tremendous in its consequences and it is similar to accepting a bribe to pass corrupt material, so the person whom signed the approval for work permit will be harmed by and we all will be affected by that signature.

We need, Mr. Prime Minister, to change the approach and follow new policies, and your government needs to issue a long-awaited package of laws, whether they are related to the issue of human trafficking, felony, or new legislation and rise to the level of performance, reliance on modern means of communication, which everyone is accustomed to during the ordeal of the coronavirus, with the intensification of penalties and application of law on all, we repeat on all, whether a member of the ruling family or an expatriate worker.

Those who know you, Mr. Prime Minister, say you are different and creative in your approach based on a clear practical vision, a serious commitment to law and firmness in its application, and without courtesy.

The hope, your Highness is that you will take a big leap of progress because you possess knowledge, culture, personality, experience and a sincere desire to straighten the twisted path.

Yes, there are great challenges, and there are many destructive factors, but there is no alternative to hope.

a.alsarraf@alqabas.com.kw