Speaker Blasts Visa ‘Mafia’, Vows to End ‘Dark Chapter’
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RAMADAN 7, 1441 AH THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020 20 Pages Max 36º Min 25º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18120 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net US panel wants India on Hillary Clinton endorses Fuel truck bomb kills more 6 religious freedom blacklist 7 Biden’s White House bid 16 than 40 in northern Syria Imsak 03:32 Fajr 03:42 Dhuhr 11:45 Asr 15:21 Maghrib 18:23 Isha 19:47 Speaker blasts visa ‘mafia’, vows to end ‘dark chapter’ MPs propose no eviction of tenants over delay in rent payment By B Izzak is determined to end this “dark chapter from our his- tory” by punishing visa traders. The speaker also KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al- called on the interior minister, who has formed an Ghanem yesterday launched a scathing attack on visa investigation committee on visa trading, to release the traders, describing them as a “mafia” and calling for findings as soon as the committee completes its work. taking all necessary measures to end the illicit trade. MP Abdulwahhab Al-Babtain said he has submit- Ghanem was speaking after a number of lawmakers ted a letter to the Assembly requiring the interior min- met the foreign minister and the minister for social ister to prepare a report within one month on visa affairs to discuss issues related to expatriates and traders who are responsible for bringing many expat restructuring the population composition. workers into the country against money without giv- He said that MPs during the meeting demanded ing them jobs. He said the letter requires the minister quick measures to repatriate thousands of illegal to inform the Assembly about the ministry’s mecha- expat workers who have benefited from the one- nism in combating visa traders. month amnesty but are still living in camps because Meanwhile, five lawmakers yesterday submitted an their governments have refused to take them back. amendment to the rents law stipulating that under Ghanem said Minister of Social Affairs Mariam Al- these exceptional circumstances, tenants will not be Aqeel told the meeting that over 18,000 such expat forced to vacate leased houses for not paying the workers are being housed in temporary camps until rent. Under the existing rents law, tenants who fail to their countries agree to allow them to return. Under pay the monthly rent by the 20th of the month can be the amnesty, which expires today, illegal workers will evicted from the house by a court ruling. The amend- not pay fines and the government will also pay their ment also stipulates that landlords will have the right air tickets. to claim full rent from tenants following the excep- Ghanem said that the main cause of problems fac- tional period. Some landlords have already reduced KUWAIT: (From right) National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem, Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad ing these expat workers are the visa traders who rents as a way to help many people, especially expa- Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah and Minister of Social Affairs Mariam Al-Aqeel are seen during a meeting to operate like a mafia and who live on accepting illegal triates, whose income has been greatly affected by discuss the population structure. — KUNA money from these poor workers. He said the country the current circumstances. From yesterday in Germany, masks Million cases in will be needed to enter shops, which began to open last week after the Bollywood star, government declared the outbreak US; economic under control. Nose and mouth cover- ‘Slumdog’ actor ings are already compulsory on buses, toll mounting trains and trams. “We all need to take care that we don’t end up with more Irrfan Khan dies BERLIN: European countries are infections,” said Lothar Wieler, presi- working to find a balance in how far to MUMBAI: Acclaimed dent of Berlin’s Robert Koch Institute. ease coronavirus lockdowns, with Indian actor Irrfan Forecasts warn of the worst global Germany enforcing mandatory masks Khan, whose interna- recession in a century, with demand tional movie career in all shops from yesterday, as the for goods gutted, and travel and included hits such as crushing global economic cost of the tourism hammered. “Slumdog Millionaire”, pandemic becomes clearer. British Airways became the latest “Life of Pi” and “The Excitement over moves towards nor- airline to sound the alarm, saying it Amazing Spider-Man”, mality is being tempered by fear of may have to cut its workforce by a has died aged 53, his fresh outbreaks of a disease that has third, while big banks are reporting publicist said yesterday. already killed 214,000 people world- deep falls in quarterly profit. In The Bollywood star, wide. Even a gradual return to every- Lebanon there were more immediate who was diagnosed Irrfan Khan day activity is “risky”, warned French signs of economic crisis, with protest- NEW DELHI: A Muslim man in protective gear offers funeral prayers for a with a neuroendocrine tumor in 2018, was Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, ers confronting soldiers in defiance of Central Reserve Police Force personnel who died from the coronavirus before admitted to a Mumbai hospital earlier this week despite a downward trend in virus the burial at a graveyard yesterday. — AFP with a colon infection. “Irrfan was a strong soul, deaths in hard-hit European countries. Continued on Page 16 someone who fought till the very end and always inspired everyone who came close to him,” his publicist said in a statement. Born in the Indian desert state of Rajasthan With fever checks on Jan 7, 1967, Khan discovered an early Continued on Page 16 and masks, Dubai mega-mall reopens How poo can be DUBAI: Clutching bags from designer boutiques in their gloved hands, customers are back at Dubai silver bullet in Mall, one of the world’s largest shopping havens that has reopened under strict safeguards against coronavirus. At a main entrance where customers tracking virus hand over their sports cars and luxury SUVs for valet parking, employees greet them with black T- PARIS: Since the beginning of the epidemic, shirts reading “Welcome back”. researchers across the world have been tracing the Smiling as they point an infrared thermometer spread of the coronavirus through waste water and “temperature gun” at visitors’ foreheads, they check sewage. From the first outbreak in China, several scientific studies have picked up the clear presence for the fever that is a telltale symptom of COVID-19 of COVID-19 in patients’ stools. Testing human infection. Dubai Mall is a key attraction of the city sewage could now become a key way of tracking state that has built its wealth and world renown on the pandemic’s spread - and a precious early warn- mega-projects and a diversified economy to ing system for a feared second wave. become a tourism and shopping hub, as well as for Researchers have found genetic traces of Sars- finance and real estate. Cov-2 - as the virus is officially known - in waste- With more than 1,300 stores arrayed around a DUBAI: People wearing protective masks to combat the spread of coronavirus walk in the Mall of Dubai on water in toilets, sewers and sewage farms from vast lake and overlooked by the Burj Khalifa, the Tuesday after it reopened. — AFP Brisbane to Paris and Amsterdam. These discoveries world’s tallest tower, Dubai Mall attracts some 80 pose “no risk” to public health, insisted Luca million visitors a year and its reopening on Tuesday in traditional white Gulf robes roam the bright alleys come every weekend with his friends. Holding two Lucentini, water quality director at the Italian was a symbolic step as the country emerges from that showcase everything from chic to bling. red bags from a famous French jewelry brand in his Institute Superior of Health (ISS), after several tests lockdown. After a month-long closure, crowds have Among them was Jamal, a 21-year-old Emirati hands, he was delighted to be back and reassured Continued on Page 16 been far thinner, as expatriates in jeans and Emiratis student who before the coronavirus crisis would Continued on Page 16 2 Local Thursday, April 30, 2020 In My View Until when? Kuwait’s Health Minister receives visiting Chinese medical team By Nawara Fattahova In My View Benefits of [email protected] volunteering t’s been two long months since the lockdown of Kuwait and the closure of almost all businesses, ban- Ining of gatherings, and over a month of curfew. Dur- ing this period, my opinion on the strict measures taken by the government has changed. I realized the serious harm to the economy, locally and globally, is much bigger By Abdellatif Sharaa than the pandemic. Dying from hunger is more serious than risking the possibility of getting infected by a virus. Almost everyone was hit by the impact of the coron- avirus outbreak. Hundreds of thousands of employees all over the world lost their jobs, or at least part of their [email protected] salaries. Small businesses could not survive, big compa- nies experienced massive losses, and even national budg- ets are under great pressure. Economic experts expect t was a pleasant scene when young men who found dramatic results of the impact of the pandemic on themselves at home due to lockdowns volunteered Kuwait’s budget after oil prices dropped remarkably. Itheir time and effort to help authorities carry out their We are currently living in a nightmare; and what’s duties during the fight against COVID-19. Volunteers are worse is that we are anxious about the dark future after found in hospitals, carrying out organizational duties, the end of the pandemic.