‘Deportation result of grave offenses only’
Rights panel issues report
KUWAIT CITY, Sept 30: The Human Rights Committee of the National Assembly that was mandated to investigate government adherence to international conventions, laws and procedures related to prison inmates has issued its final report, reports Al-Anba daily.
The report includes a presentation of the committee’s work and the results of the investigation with the ministries of Interior, Health, Justice and Social Affairs and Labor complete with recommendations.
The Director-General of the Correctional Institutes said most cases of deportation are due to violation of residence laws, cases of running away from sponsors and serious traffic violation such as driving without a licence.
He pointed out some embassies failed to cooperate with the authorities and refuse to provide identification papers to facilitate the deportation.
The prisons inmates have given the commission a list with 46 observations detailing how to improve the prison environment.
The following is the list received by the Ministry of Interior in detail including:
A written document outlining the rights and duties complete with Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners;
The inmates to be provided with electrical appliances, books, clothes and perfumes through the security authorities as per the rules of the facility;
A modern prison complex to accommodate large number of prisoners to prevent overcrowding;
The allocation of a dormitory for the elderly and all categories of prisoners; a library with approximately 5,000 books;
Provision of additional buses for the transfer of inmates to attend court cases, allow inmates to exercise, right to vote (for Kuwaiti inmates), and legislative texts to determine the mechanism in that direction;
Segregate inmates who are sentenced in drug cases from the rest; and periodic inspection of the inmates to ensure they are not doing drugs;
The Committee also recommended that the prison year should be calculated as 9 months.
The report stated that the Ministry of Health alone provides healthcare in prisons, and recommended developing periodic reports on the condition of prisons, and to send copies of these reports to the legislative and executive authorities and make them public.