In a recent sentencing by the Criminal court, “an unidentified Asian man” was given “10 years imprisonment for trafficking in human beings.” The court also sentenced “two other men to five years, another to seven years and an Asian woman to three years.” The suspects were charged “with kidnapping an Asian maid, forcing her into prostitution and premeditatedly murdering her.” During the interrogation with the accused, the Asian suspect “admitted....forcing [the Asian maid] into prostitution and that she died in an attempt to escape.” Previously he sold her to a brothel in Jleeb Al-Shuyukh for KD 100.(Arab Times April 11, 2010).

I suggested in earlier articles published in the Arab Times that the Interior Ministry should do more raids on prostitution and criminal dens in Al-Jleeb. Our security forces already know the whereabouts and perhaps identities of would-be criminals.
What we need today is the use of more media exposure coverage of human trafficking committed by foreigners on our Kuwaiti soil.
Such media coverage of human trafficking crimes accompanied by reports on the efforts of the Interior Ministry to fight such phenomena will improve our standing in future international human rights reports.
At least we can clarify and throw light on some of the exaggerated accusations against our country.
Moreover, currently there seems to be a half-hearted media effort by some local agencies to shed more light on human trafficking committed by some expats against their own compatriots or those from other Asian nationalities.  It is, of course, ironic that such cases of expat-expat human trafficking and sexual exploitations do not seem to stand clear in international human rights reports. What we need to do is to sound the alarm louder than before and perhaps accompany such calls with security action against perpetrators.
A tiny number of foreigners in Kuwait do actually engage in the “flesh trade” and their crimes seem to have far greater consequences on our society. The Kuwaiti government has already established fully-equipped shelters for runaway maids who do not necessarily runaway from their Kuwaiti sponsors. In other words, we do not have to accept some human right reports on their face value, but point out the reality of the situations.
Strangely enough, such international reports seem to ignore the particulars of incidents and crimes committed by some expats against other expats victims. We will be silent no more!
Your View:
“I read with interest your column regarding Westerners adjusting to life in Kuwait...my employer refuses to get Civil IDs for Western employees...this means we cannot go to the clinic when we are sick....we cannot open bank accounts....you might want to write an article about unscrupulous employers”(Reader)

khaledaljenfawi@yahoo.com