By Muna Al-Fuzai: It happens every day somewhere in Kuwait. A 'cleaning worker' comes up to you, greeting you in a low voice and with a shy look, asking you to give him money. Now, you have to choose between contributing to the physical and psychological suffering this poor soul will endure in the event that you do not give him any money, or giving him a few fils, or a dinar or two. Yet, you know that he will have to collect more than you can give just to pay the KD 10 minimum demanded daily by the money collector who employs him...
I was unaware of this phenomenen in Kuwait, but it ain't surprising. As Muna says later in the article, hopefully publicity of this problem will help in leading "... concerned authorities to intervene and end this horrid practice, which is an affront to Islam and to Allah Himself." Rather than having an indigenous poverty issue, what makes Kuwait different to other societies is that here, the poor are imported to further exploit.
1 comment:
This becoming a problem in Kuwait. A lot of workers are taking loans to pay money to get a work permits so that they can come to Kuwait. They have this belief that just by coming here thinking the roads are paved with gold and be able to earn enough to pay back the debt and take take of their families. Yet once they come here it is far from true.
Once in our company we were looking for some employees and went to the hiring agencies. They came with their fee to find a employees for us. Some were 50, 75 etc. Then somebody came and said 200. We were getting feeds of 50 and 75 why would this guy charge 200. He wasn't charging us, he was going to give us 200kd to hire one of his people.
If he is able to give us 200, and make a decent profit. Think how much the person wanting to come to Kuwait is paying.
The government is cracking down on the companies making sure all employees are accounted for and being paid the a salary. But if the people doing the checking are also crooked and asking you make a work permit for their wife's cousin from Egypt, who doesn't even plan to work for you. It kinda defeats the purpose.
Last I heard work permits for Egyptians is around 800-1200kd depending on the position.
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