MP Demands Scrapping Maid Company Due to High Prices Bedoons Under Rights Panel • Speaker Slams Footage ‘Leakers’
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RABI ALTHANI 7, 1439 AH MONDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2017 Max 31º 32 Pages 150 Fils Established 1961 Min 13º ISSUE NO: 17415 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net MP demands scrapping maid company due to high prices Bedoons under rights panel • Speaker slams footage ‘leakers’ By B Izzak ing to debate the establishment of the national human rights commission. He said KUWAIT: MP Safa Al-Hashem yesterday the committee will pay an inspection visit to demanded in a draft law the scrapping of the the central jail on Thursday and also decided MoI mulls fee newly-established company for the recruit- to visit any facility where human rights abus- ment of maids from abroad because of its es take place. high prices. Hashem said in her proposal that MP Mohammad Al-Dallal said yesterday hikes to plug the company was established in accordance that he will grill the new finance minister if with a law passed in 2015 by the National he does not send the financial and economic budget deficit Assembly with the main objective of bringing reforms document to the Assembly before down the highly inflated prices charged by Feb 20 for a debate. Dallal asked the minister KUWAIT: Director General of private recruitment offices. about the motives and the reasons behind Residency Affairs Maj Gen Talal But the company, which began operations the finance ministry’s plans to impose taxes Maarafi said the most important rea- recently, is charging almost similar fees, which on individuals and companies, especially sons that made the interior ministry means it has failed to achieve the goals of its since taxation has a unique system under submit a proposal to increase fees is establishment and should be scrapped, she capitalism and does not apply to the Kuwaiti the deficit in the state’s general budget, said. Under the said law, only one company constitutional system. The Assembly will besides the real cost of services pre- has been established, Al-Durrah Company, hold its regular session tomorrow amid which recently advertised recruitment of demands to debate the hike in petrol prices, sented by the department, which are Talal Maarafi Safa Al-Hashem not in harmony with the current fees. He domestic helpers from Sri Lanka, demanding amendments to the health insurance on said the current fees have been in effect infrastructure are concerned, but the a price of around KD 1,000, which is almost lic shareholding companies for the recruit- expatriates and others. for 40 years without a change and most fee increase includes both expats and the same as charged by private offices. ment of helpers with the aim to reduce prices. Separately, Assembly Speaker Marzouq of them are selective, such as for visit citizens,” he told Al-Qabas daily. Meanwhile, reports said the Kuwaiti Meanwhile, the Assembly’s human rights Al-Ghanem vowed yesterday that those who and temporary residency permits. Maarafi spoke about a new system Embassy in Manila recently sent a report to defense committee yesterday decided to leaked footage deemed offensive to the polit- “We are not against expats as they to renew expats’ residency permits the foreign ministry in which it explained that include the issue of stateless people or ical leadership will be exposed and penalized. are our brothers. They live in Kuwait online, adding several offers from the cost for the recruitment of a domestic bedoons under its mandate in a bid to help Ghanem linked between these people and and earn their living here, and have a companies are being studied to helper from the Philippines is only KD 370, resolve their decades-old problem. Head of those who helped impose a ban on Kuwaiti major role in building old and modern select the best. including the airfare. Recruitment offices have the committee MP Adel Al-Damkhi said the sports, which was lifted by FIFA a few days Kuwait as far as education, health and Continued on Page 11 been charging well over KD 1,000, which committee decided to invite State Minister ago and which allowed the country to host prompted MPs to pass the law to set up pub- for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh for a meet- the Gulf football championship. south of the country Friday crossed 200 News in brief Dozens dead and with tens of thousands displaced by severe flooding and landslides. Saudis deny Israelis visas The blaze started at the four-storey in Philippine NCCC Mall Saturday morning, sending ATHENS: Israeli players have been denied visas to thick plumes of black smoke billowing into participate in a speed chess championship hosted mall inferno the sky over Davao. With low wages but by Saudi Arabia this week, a vice president of the strong English language skills, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) said yesterday. DAVAO, Philippines: At least 37 people, Philippines is a popular destination for Seven Israeli players had requested visas for the including call center staff from an American international companies to set up customer tournament on Dec 26-30. It would have marked the firm, are believed to have perished in a fire call centers. The building’s top floor housed first time Saudi Arabia had publicly hosted Israelis that tore through a shopping mall in the a 24-hour call centre for the US-based as the Gulf state does not recognize Israel and there southern Philippine city of Davao, local market research company SSI. are no formal ties between them. Israel Gelfer, vice authorities said yesterday. President Jimmy Quimsing, a retired seaman, was president of FIDE, whose Secretariat is based in Rodrigo Duterte, himself a Davao native, one of the relatives desperately waiting for Athens, told Reuters in an email that visas for the visited distraught relatives outside the news. His 25-year-old son Jim Benedict Israeli players “have not been issued and will not be burning building overnight but told them worked at the call centre and had not been issued”. He said the tournament would go ahead as there was “zero” chance their loved ones in contact since the fire broke out. planned. It was not immediately clear if other dele- had survived, witnesses told AFP. Quimsing said he spoke to President gations had been excluded but players from Qatar Firemen found one body as the blaze Duterte and had been told to prepare for had suggested they may have been rejected. was finally extinguished yesterday, Davao the worst. “He told us ... no one would sur- Mayor Sara Duterte - the president’s vive under these circumstances,” he told DAVAO: Firefighters extinguish a fire at a shopping mall on Saturday. — AFP daughter - told reporters. Firemen have AFP. Duterte’s special assistant Christopher concluded that all those trapped in the Go confirmed the bulk of the president’s page, SSI said it would set up a “command our firemen here has a kid who is (a call Tunisia outraged over UAE curbs building are dead, she said, adding: “They comments to AFP. Paolo Duterte, the presi- center” for the relatives of those missing. center) agent in there. He told us some of assessed that no one would survive in that dent’s son and the vice mayor of Davao, “Please continue to pray for everyone’s them went to collect their stuff at their ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates said yes- heat and with that thick, black smoke.” The also wrote on Facebook that fire officials safety,” the firm added. Davao fire marshal lockers and were trapped,” Alagano told terday that “security information” had caused the deadly fire adds fresh misery for the mainly had told him there was “zero” chance of Honeyfritz Alagano said the blaze may have AFP. “The mall is an enclosed space with delays on Tunisian women from boarding flights to Catholic Philippines at Christmas as the anyone trapped surviving the blaze. started by a spark on the third floor of the no ventilation. the Gulf state that caused an outcry in their home death toll from a tropical storm that hit the In a statement on its local Facebook mall, which had a furniture section. “One of Continued on Page 11 country. “We contacted our Tunisian brothers about security information that necessitated taking specif- ic procedures,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign reflect research showing the brain takes Affairs Anwar Gargash said on his Twitter account. Ad firms using in information on different levels. A number of Tunisian women said in recent days They “enable us to capture many that their travel to the Gulf state on UAE airlines had tools to help them different types of emotions and to be been delayed and some had to undergo additional able to profile the emotions that are examination of their visas. That triggered angry happening very granularly on a second reactions on social media and local Tunisian media. read your mind by second basis,” said Elissa Moses, The Tunisian government said Friday it had asked chief executive of the neuro and behav- the UAE ambassador for clarification, adding that NEW YORK: Why did you splurge on ioral science business at Ipsos, a con- the envoy said the decision was for only a short that new pair of shoes? Or that pricey sultancy and market research firm. period and the restrictions had been lifted. smartphone? More and more advertisers “People won’t be able to tell you that are trying to tap into the unconscious to something irritated them in scene three divine the invisible forces that drive or thrilled them in scene seven, but those spending decisions. Using gadgets we’ll know from looking at the facial Fog disrupts UAE flights to track eye movements, computer maps coding,” Moses said.