Kuwaiti Human Rights activist slams anti-expats discussions

Well known Kuwaiti Human Rights activist and Chairman of the Board of Kuwait Society for Human Rights (KRCS) Khalid Al-Humaidi condemn the increasing instance of anti-expats campaign in the official and unofficial domains as of late.

Racist governmental decisions and lawmakers’ statements regarding Kuwait’s demographic structure are affecting the expatriate workforce in the country, he said in an article published by Al Rai newspaper. Increasing public health fees collected from expatriates and introducing new conditions for dependency visas as “human rights violations,” he said.

Humaidi said that he does not agree with the notion of ‘productive workers’ and ‘unproductive workers’. All foreigners living in Kuwait should be treated equally. “Immigrant workers should not be handled according to interest, or categorized as ‘useful’ or ‘non-useful’ workers,” he said. “The ‘citizen and noncitizen’ perspective is a form of racial discrimination that is not appropriate with Kuwait’s status as a humanitarian center,” he said.

According to Al Rai report, he also criticized the administrative deportation system and said that it is another form of human rights violations that expatriates in Kuwait are subjected to, and which violates the international law. “Some workers were deported after they protested not being paid for three months by companies contracted with state departments,” he said.

According to report, around 13,000 expatriates were deported during the first half of this year, which means an average of 86 persons a day. These procedures do not provide any solutions, but instead feed more hate sentiments among nationals towards immigrant laborers, Al-Humaidi argued.