| Visa trading, rising food prices, rents major challenges; Expats need to feel ‘at home’ in Kuwai |
According to the Arab Times, “the Investigation Section of the General Immigration Department Thursday arrested a Kuwaiti man for trading in visas. According to reliable sources the man had 16 bogus companies registered in his name and have reportedly sold 265 work permits to people of various nationalities.” Whether the allegations prove true or not, “trading in visas” is only one of the challenges facing our expatriates friends and partners. Among other important issues that constitute real challenges for expatriate workers in Kuwait are rising food prices, rents, and the increase in general living expenses. As our most important national goals continue to be the transformation of Kuwait into a regional financial and commercial center, it is better to focus on providing a more hospitable environment for our expatriates.
Certainly, in addition to being exploited by visa traders, many hard working expatriates find it difficult to keep their families in Kuwait due to the rise in food prices, the irrational increase in rents and skyrocketing living expenses. We have already stressed the need for these individuals, expatriates, who are the real flesh and bones of our local economy, to feel at home. They are the ones who run the daily business in almost all private companies in Kuwait; they also continue to contribute in their government jobs, facilitating our national luxurious way of life. Therefore, they deserve to live in a more hospitable environment equal to the amount of efforts they are excreting. Reducing the impacts of already existing bureaucratic complications in different government departments, moderating rents or issuing a government decree, which can freeze rents, and above all trying our best to make our expatriate friends and partners feel at home, are real steps in the right direct.
The government’s crackdown on visa traders will ultimately remove one menace from our local environment. However, we also need to focus on how many of these expatriate workers and employees are dealing with artificial rises in food prices and rents. In an earlier published article in the Arab Times, I emphasized the need to create some kind of government program through which subsidized food coupons can be offered to expatriates. This subsidized food program does not necessarily have to be part of what ordinary Kuwaitis receive at the end of each month (subsidized food or “Tamween”...etc), but it should be at least a similar program which offer a much needed help. Many expatriates for example purchase their food and other necessary commodities from public cooperative societies, but they already know they will receive no profit in doing so!
In other words, why not set up a different kind of cooperative society for expatriates, where they can purchase whatever they need and get something in return. They are certainly similar avid consumers like many Kuwaiti citizens and they should enjoy the benefits of feeling at home. One other important challenge facing many expatriates is what amounts to an artificial and arbitrary rise in rents. In Dubai for example, the government there started tackling the rise in rents by issuing some kind of freeze on already signed contracts. We can do better in Kuwait by starting to regulate rents through the establishment of a government department that can monitor irrational rise in rents, especially for expatriates. It is becoming more difficult for many expatriates to keep their families in Kuwait because of the rise in rents and other living expenses. It is certainly better to create a new scenario where expatriates and their loved ones can really feel at home in Kuwait.
Trying to provide a more hospitable local environment for our expatriate friends and partners requires some efforts from the government and civil societies. These honest and hard working people continue to contribute in maintaining our local economy and they are facing harder challenges in a global financial crisis. It would be better to provide expatriates working in Kuwait with other options than continuously being victimized by visa traders or opting for sending their families back home instead of enjoying a stable, prosperous and happy family life in Kuwait. - Arab Times
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| Posted on:
10/05/2008 |
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