KUWAIT CITY, Dec 22: The recent campaigns by the Ministry of Interior, within the framework of the tripartite committee’s efforts to get rid of marginal manpower from the country and deal with the visatraders, resulted in the arrest of thousands of violating expatriates in various work sectors. These intensive field campaigns held for months targeted massage parlors for men, and workers in the fishing and agriculture fields and scrap yards, reports Al- Qabas daily. In just three months, the tripartite committee headed by the Director General of the Public Authority for Manpower Dr. Mubarak Al-Azmi, under direct orders from the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled, intensified field campaigns to control the labor market and get rid of residency dealers and marginal manpower from a number of sectors.

Committee
During the period between August and November, the committee, with the cooperation of the Residency Investigation Department, arrested 9,517 violators of residency and labor laws. They were deported from the country, including 1,065 violators who were caught in November alone. The campaigns targeted a number of sectors, particularly workers in men’s massage parlors, illegal fishermen, and workers in farms and scrap yards in Mutlaa, Sulaibiya and Kabad.

According to informed sources, the committee will continue to pursue violators in the labor market, whether workers in construction or farms, and also in the camping areas, as 600 violators were caught in various campaigns during the past month and the beginning of this month. The sources pointed out that there are recruitment agencies that sell “visas” for KD 2,500 to some nationalities, noting that a number of fake companies have finally fallen into the hands of the concerned authorities.

In a different context, the sources revealed a new approach by the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) for activating a new mechanism to receive complaints and communications regarding transfers between companies, especially for new workers entering the country. He explained that the new mechanism aims to confront the process of workers purchasing residency permits before they come to Kuwait, especially for those who request, as they arrive in the country and obtain actual work, to transfer from a fictitious company in which they were registered to a new workplace. This increases the volume of complaints and encourages the purchase of residency permits.