Kuwait to build new shelter for absconding workers

Kuwait has allocated 700,000 Kuwait dinars for the establishment of a shelter for expatriate workers who escape from their sponsors due to maltreatment, delayed payment of salaries and other labor-related problems, a local daily has reported. "The new shelter can accommodate 900 workers experiencing problems with their employers," Hadi Al Enzi, deputy director of the Labour Relations Department, said. "The workers can stay in the shelter until the settlement of the labour dispute through the coordinated efforts of the ministries of interior, health, justice, social affairs and labour," he said, quoted by Arab Times. Al Enzi, who also supervises the temporary shelter for absconding expatriate workers, said that the new shelter would be established in an abandoned school building that would be reconstructed and equipped with the necessary facilities for the absconding workers. The concerned ministries will work together to ensure the smooth operation of the shelter and to protect the rights of the workers, he said. The official said that Mohammad Al Kandari, the social affairs and labour undersecretary, has worked on expediting the implementation of the project, including the establishment of a temporary shelter in Kheitan. "The shelter will also serve as an information center for the expatriates to allow the concerned institutions to lay down strategies for the effective implementation of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour's policy on regulating the local labour market," he said. Proposals for the construction of two shelters in Jahra and Ahmadi in the coming years have been presented to the government, he said. Kuwait is home to around 2.2 million foreigners who make up two thirds of the country's total population. Most of the expatriates come from Asian countries from / Gulf News