Speaker urges strict measures against countries refusing to take their citizens

‘Public Loan Bill sent to financial panel’

KUWAIT CITY, May 7: The Public Loan Bill of the government has been forwarded to the parliamentary Financial Affairs Committee as per the National Assembly Decree, says Speaker of the Assembly Marzouq AlGhanim.

In a press conference, Al-Ghanim revealed he gave the government a chance to withdraw the bill but it opted not to take this step; indicating he forwarded the bill to the Financial Affairs Committee irrespective of his opinion. He said Minister of Finance Barrak Al-Shitan informed him that the government is keen on pushing for approval of the bill and it is ready to take into consideration the MPs’ comments. He added the bill is now in the hands of the committee for discussion and then the latter will submit a report to the Assembly.

Meanwhile, MP Yousef Al-Fadalah praised the strict measures taken by Minister of Interior and State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh against Residency Law violators and visa traders.

He urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take similar steps against countries which refused to receive their citizens, pointing out the plan of some embassies to arrange two flights daily for the repatriation of their citizens is not enough. He emphasized the need for these countries to strictly follow the schedule for the repatriation of their citizens. It seems the concerned authorities in these countries do not respect their citizens; hence, they do not deserve the respect of Kuwait. The ministry must take tough measures to punish the countries that refrain from evacuating their citizens; such as cancelling grants and loans which Kuwait provided to them, in addition to withdrawing deposits from their banks, he added.

In addition, MP Adel Al-Damkhi submitted a proposal to assign the parliamentary Human Rights Committee to investigate the increasing rate of visa trading. MPs Osama Al-Shaheen, Riyadh Al-Adasani, Muhammad Al-Dallal and Adnan Abdulsamad expressed support for the proposal by signing it.

Al-Damkhi explained the proposal is in line with Article 114 of the Constitution and Article 147 of the National Assembly Decree, stressing that combating human trafficking is part of the core duties of the committee. He pointed out it has been confirmed that visa trading is the main reason behind most of the problems in the country, such as the lopsided demographic structure and rising number of marginal workers.

Furthermore, MP Sa’ad Al-Khanfour warned the ministers of Health and Municipality Affairs against allowing restaurants to deliver during curfew; because this mars all efforts exerted in curbing the spread of coronavirus.

On the other hand, MP Majed Al-Mutairi forwarded queries to Minister of Oil, Electricity and Water Khalid Al-Fadel on the investments of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) in the last five years.

He asked about the amount of investment and the corresponding profits, institutions where the investments were placed, amount of losses if any, reasons behind these losses, persons responsible for the losses, procedures taken to punish those responsible for the losses, justifications for the loans obtained by KPC despite its gains as per the information circulated recently, results of investigation into the investment in Vietnam, amount and causes of losses if any, steps taken to avoid recurrence of such losses, total number of KPC employees infected with coronavirus, and precautionary measures taken to curb the spread of corona among the workers.