SUBSCRIPTION TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2014 MUHARRAM 18, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Second Suicide bomber Pakistan’s Suns hand e-government kills 47 in new weapon Warriors forum Nigeria school of mass first defeat underway3 massacre7 seduction29 of20 season Why aren’t laid-off Min 07º Max 27º High Tide nurses being hired? 01:14 & 15:35 Low Tide 08:53 & 20:46 40 PAGES NO: 16339 150 FILS Vacancies exist, but recruiters want new ‘fees’ By Sajeev K Peter conspiracy theories KUWAIT: Around 446 nursing staff who lost their job last month after the Ministry of Health cancelled the Overnight you license of the company that recruited them are seeking the government’s help to get jobs in MoH hospitals or clinics. “We lost our jobs for no fault of ours,” one of the are Comorian! nurses who did not want to give her name told Kuwait Times. According to her, they all are qualified and have experience in working in Kuwaiti hospitals and clinics. “We know that there are vacancies in MoH hospitals and clinics here. Our request to the government is that the MoH consider our plight and take us back into the sys- By Badrya Darwish tem,” she said. Nurses from developing countries often pay as much as KD 3,000 to KD 5,000 to recruiters - both in their home country and in Kuwait - for the privilege of a job. And with growing demand in Kuwait (as the country [email protected] builds several new hospitals and polyclinics), there is a projected rising demand for nurses. But so far, many of the laid-off nurses have not been able to land a new ongratulations bedoons! Now you can be position. The reason why may have little to do with their Comoros Island nationals. Hurray! But you qualification and experience. Instead, some speculate will be Comoros islanders still living in that recruiters would prefer to seek new recruits from C abroad in order to earn the ‘fees’ typically paid by for- Kuwait, where you have been living, some of you eign nurses. for 30, 40, 50, 60 years, maybe more - it varies. It The difficulty for the jobless nurses in Kuwait is that doesn’t matter. But you’ve been living on this they have already paid their recruitment fees - often land a long time. But don’t bother - with the fast leaving massive debts back home. “Our contracts came transportation nowadays and modern airports, KUWAIT: Kuwaiti youth with disabilities attend a special annual parliament session at the National Assembly to an end on October 26. We are in deep crisis because you can be in your new homeland in a few hours yesterday to discuss and provide solutions for the problems facing people with disabilities. — Photo by many of us are here with our families. by air. Yasser Al-Zayyat (See Page 2) Continued on Page 13 Really, is this a solution to the bedoon prob- lem in Kuwait? I’m wondering why did the Comoros government agree to such an unprece- Govt mulling dented deal. I have never heard of such a thing in my life. Do we buy and sell citizenship nowa- petrol subsidy, days openly? Was it a money deal? Is it easy for countries to accept such proposals and to accept so many people who have never set foot or even spending cuts heard of the islands before? I’m sure if I conduct a survey tomorrow of bedoons and even others S&P issues warning in Kuwait, most wouldn’t know where the KUWAIT: Kuwait’s government is looking at adjusting its Comoros Islands are located. I only know about it petrol subsidies in order to reduce waste, a senior Kuwaiti because I work in a newspaper, excuse my igno- official said yesterday in a fresh sign that authorities are rance. using this year’s oil price plunge to push economic OK, whatever deal took place and it was reforms. For years, the government refrained from cutting agreed. But what’s the use if the bedoons are lavish and growing energy subsidies because of political going to remain in Kuwait? Why force on them a sensitivities. But last month, it said it planned to raise different nationality? Or is the idea just to stop domestic prices of diesel fuel and kerosene. this notion of stateless because it is a shame for Ali Sabt bin Sabt, acting undersecretary at Kuwait’s oil Kuwait? Will this stop international human rights ministry, told Reuters yesterday that the government was organizations from criticizing us? Or stop the now also looking at petrol subsidies. A petrol price hike bedoons from protesting and demonstrating would probably have a much bigger impact on con- and some of their activists outside Kuwait writ- sumers than the diesel and kerosene changes. “You need ing about us? Will this stop them and stop all to do something about subsidies. Maybe a producing that activity? country can turn into a consumer country,” Sabt said on And on a serious note, once they are given the sidelines of an energy conference in Abu Dhabi, refer- Comorian nationality, can they go live there if ring to concern that ultra-low domestic prices are encour- they wish? What jobs, homes, land, schools, etc aging Kuwait’s petrol consumption to balloon as its popu- will be available for them? And if they stay in lation grows, potentially eating into its oil exports. “We Kuwait, will they be treated differently from oth- need to put policy on it. We need to put an order to it so er expatriates here? For instance, will they be we can do something regarding consumption.” exempted from the requirement of having a Sabt added, “Yes, we are looking at petrol specifically. It is subsidized and...that is increasing. As population is Kuwaiti sponsor and residency and bitaqa and more and more, we have to do something in this regard.” etc? And for how long will the residency be? Asked whether the government might double petrol Unlimited, or like other expats depending on the prices in the future, he said: “Not doubling, but it is under company? Renewable or with conditions? study...It is not yet decided.” A decision may come in the Transferrable? And what about their children - near future, Sabt said without elaborating. will they adopt the nationality of their parents Later yesterday, the government ordered Cabinet min- and become Comorians? Will they be allowed to isters to “rationalize spending” after considering measures stay in Kuwait, study in schools and universities to counter the sharp decline in oil prices, an official state- and work in any place, be it the government or ment said. “The government asked ministers to control private sector? expenditure and rationalize spending in such a way to There are a hundred questions to be asked serve citizens and achieve the country’s higher interests,” over such an absurd proposal. said a statement following the weekly Cabinet meeting. Continued on Page 13 Comoros offer highlights plight of Kuwait bedoons KUWAIT: Kuwait’s announcement that tens of thou- “It is shocking that authorities in Kuwait would try to sands of stateless people will be offered citizenship of resolve the long-standing issue of the bedoons’ stateless- the impoverished African nation of Comoros has high- ness and discrimination by mass purchasing another coun- lighted their decades-old plight. But a representative of try’s ‘economic citizenship’,” said Amnesty’s Said the community whose members demand Kuwaiti citi- Boumedouha. zenship rejected the government’s offer as “totally The bedoons numbered 106,000 in 2011, according a impractical”. The stateless people, known as bedoons, Human Rights Watch report based on Kuwaiti government insist they were born and raised in Kuwait and thus statistics. The figures show that while 34,000 bedoons qual- have full rights to claim citizenship. Kuwait says a major- ify for consideration of citizenship, 42,000 are Iraqis, 26,000 ity of the bedoons belong to other countries and that are of other nationalities, mainly Saudi, and the status of only 34,000 of them qualify for consideration of citizen- 4,000 is unknown. The government based its findings on ship after meeting a set of stringent conditions. secret information which it refuses to share, HRW said. The state insists it has documented evidence to prove its Kuwait says apart from those eligible to apply for citizen- claims, saying the bedoons are mainly from neighbouring ship, other bedoons or their ancestors crossed into the Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as well as a few thousand from Iran, country illegally and destroyed their passports in order to Jordan and Syria. Rights watchdog Amnesty International gain access to generous welfare programs, including free slammed the move, saying in a statement it is “a shameless housing. betrayal of Kuwait’s international human rights obligations”. Continued on Page 13 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2014 LOCAL Al-Ghanim and senior officials with members of the Kuwait Disabled Club. A child takes an MPs seat in the parliament. A man makes a statement using sign language at the session. Speaker promises exerted efforts for disabled KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker to be heard by the government, the various Good hands Development, further assured during the ships that are facing this segment; however, Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanim promised yesterday institutions and the public. Meanwhile, Minister of Social Affairs and special session that “we will do our best to she emphasized that it will take “time, to exert all possible efforts to hear and meet He urged them to take matters into their Labor Hind Al-Subaih stressed that people fulfill the requirements of people living with finances and human resources.” Subaih the demands of the disabled community.