Rights watch team ‘pleased’ with developments in Kuwait

KUWAIT: A Human Rights Watch delegation currently visiting Kuwait is scheduled to hold meetings with a number of officials, including members of the national human rights diwan and representatives of NGOs, said informed sources, adding that the delegation hailed the development in human right issues in Kuwait, namely those related to domestic helpers. In this regard, the head of Kuwait Society for Human Rights’ domestic helpers committee Meshari AlSanad said that the society discussed various issues with the HRW delegation, including bedoons and domestic helpers.

Sanad added that the delegation pointed out that compared to last year, much improvement has been made in some human rights issues, including those concerning domestic helpers in the form of new legislations set to protect their rights. Sanad also noted that the delegation stressed that abuses against domestic helpers are only individual cases similar to those detected in all countries hiring foreign domestic helpers.

Roads authority

The committee entrusted to investigate the recent rainfall problem recommended keeping the Public Authority for Roads and Transport (PART) because its establishment was a leading idea followed in most GCC states, said an official source in the committee. The official added that the problem was in those running the authority rather than in PART itself. He explained that 12 companies executing PART projects had made serious mistakes and were referred to relevant authorities for further actions, including the possibility of excluding them from any further Ministry of Public Works (MPW) projects. The official said the committee recommended indicting some officials, and accordingly, MPW would most likely witness several reshuffles and transfers in various sectors.

Subsidies

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) yesterday announced that it had spent around KD 238,144,700 on various kinds of subsidized food supplies and construction material in 2018. The ministry statement explained that the sum included KD 108,200,000 for basic food supplies and KD 4.5 million for various types of baby formula and nutrients, adding that KD 125.3 million was spent on construction materials. The statement also explained that beneficiaries from food supplies in December totaled 2,055,130.