Exempt expats, Bedouns from 2 house rent – Human Rights Association

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PAM, competent bodies urged to intervene

KUWAIT CITY, April 14: According to the Human Rights Fundamentals Association (HRFA), several companies in Kuwait have dismissed their expatriate and Bedoun workers or reduced their salaries or forced them to take unpaid leave, reports Al-Seyassah / Arab Times daily.

In a press release issued by HRFA, it insisted that such moves are in violation of the rights of the workers, and have led to a severe social crisis, the severity of which is on the rise.

This is happening due to the coronavirus crisis that the world including Kuwait is going through. HRFA demanded the government agencies to intervene in this aspect. It insisted on the need to raise the alarm after some local newspapers published alarming reports and numbers related to repercussions of the coronavirus crisis. HRFA stressed that these reports highlighted the fact that almost 40,000 companies are stumbling and bankrupt, indicating the dismissal and termination of contracts for 200,000 employees and workers within two months.

Monitored

It explained that the association recently monitored the reality on the ground and confirmed this. It drew attention to the extent of suffering that the society, particularly the expatriate and Bedoun residents, is exposed to, and how the lives of most of them have been negatively affected especially after many private sector entities dismissed their employees and workers or forced them to take open unpaid leave or reduced their salaries by half under the pretext of the current crisis in the country.

The repercussions of all this have created a new form of suffering, as a large segment of the residents are unable to pay the monthly rents of the houses they live in.

Majority of the real estate owners are insisting on receiving these rents, which in turn increase the suffering and pain of the expatriate tenants. HRFA called on the Public Authority for Manpower and the competent authorities to intervene and remedy the matter before it exacerbates.

It called for the reappointment of those who were arbitrarily dismissed, and compensation for their salary deductions, as well as the allocation of a safe hotline number to receive complaints against any company that violates the labor law of the private sector or the rights of its employees and workers. It stressed the need to hold legally accountable those who take advantage of these exceptional circumstances in the country.

The association also asked government agencies to relieve expatriate and Bedoun residents of the burden by encouraging real estate owners to exempt their tenants from paying rent for at least two months, or postpone the payment until the crisis eases or find appropriate and alternative mechanisms in this regard. It said, “Those among the real estate owners who prove to the state that they are badly affected by the current crisis and are unable to withstand such an initiative, the government and its relevant institutions should find a way that suits everyone, and relieve them from this stifling crisis.”

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