The Council of Ministers has assigned the Kuwait Municipality to follow up and complete all necessary measures to provide a sufficient number of suitable sites for housing workers or to establish labor cities that serve each of the areas (urban and industrial) for the benefit of the Management of State Property sector of the Ministry of Finance provided this is done in line rules and regulations and built within a specified period of time in accordance with the texts and procedures in force.

A letter issued by the Secretariat General of the Council of Ministers, regarding the labor cities project in Kuwait, Al-Qabas revealed the Council was briefed during the meeting on Jan 24, 2022, about the recommendation contained in the Public Services Committee, during which it was briefed on the vision of the Minister of Oil which says the oil sector does not require labor cities for oil sector’s contractor’s department, due to the imminent completion of the current capital projects and the scarcity of such future projects, saying and if projects come up, the contractors’ workers can be accommodated in the storage areas.

The letter indicated that the Services Committee reviewed the letter of the Ministry of Public Works, which includes the statement that Ministerial Resolution No. (21) of 2021 regarding the formation of a higher committee to coordinate and follow up on all requirements, procedures, and decisions related to labor housing and the establishment of labor cities, and coordination with representatives of these bodies which will discuss, complete and follow up all the executive procedures for the plans related to housing workers, or the establishment of labor cities in light of the current reality and future changes in the number of workers and to estimate the extent of the need for their housing.

The council discussed the letter of the Minister of Finance, which included the statement of the Public-Private Partnership Projects Authority that none of the qualified companies have so far submitted their bids for the labor cities project (the city of South Jahra), which resulted in the Supreme Committee issuing its decision to cancel the proposal of the labor cities project in the city of South Jahra in accordance with the provisions of Law No. (116) of 2014 regarding the partnership between the public and private sectors and its executive regulations, and the Municipality was informed about the situation.

Recommendations submitted by the Ministry of Interior concerning labor cities:
The number of workers should not exceed 150,000 thousand, and the distribution of residential buildings should be in the form of neighborhoods; installing cameras to monitor fences, entrance and exit gates, buildings, and roads; the Ministry of Interior confirmed that the capacity of the worker’s city is one of the basic criteria, which determines the feasibility of implementing the city, and there is a direct relationship between the area of the worker’s city and the costs of its establishment, and the Ministry of the Interior considers it necessary to take into account several considerations that facilitate the process of security control in unfavorable circumstances which would lead to a breach of security.

Security requirements and considerations are as follows:
01- The project site must be at least 5 kilometers away from the nearest residential city.
02- The outer wall, the labor city must be surrounded by an outer wall with a height of 4 meters to hinders anyone climbing the wall from inside or outside with the construction of a street with a path parallel to the fence from the inside and outside.
03- Entry gates for cars, trucks, and individuals, so that cars and trucks enter through specific gates, and this principle applies to the entry of pedestrians.
04- Establishing a security center (mini police station building) that contains car parking and a fence surrounding the building, provided that this center is located outside the city walls near the main gate of the city.
05- Housing is distributed in the form of neighborhoods with all its infrastructure services, streets, and parking lots, taking into account the provision of all living services within each of the neighborhoods, with the possibility of isolating any neighborhood individually from the rest of the neighborhoods and controlling entry and exit whenever necessary.

The ministry confirmed that it always seeks to reduce security-disrupting acts or work not to aggravate them, and we find that, in line with this approach, Law No. 61 of 2015 was issued regarding the organization and installation of cameras and security surveillance devices, after which Ministerial Resolution No. 5003 of 2015 was issued regarding technical specifications of cameras and security monitoring devices.

The Ministry identified its recommendations to limit acts of a security breach as one of the main factors that reduce the rate of crime or security breach by providing some recreational and sports facilities within the residential city, as well as providing all facilities that secure living and ensure access to the required services without the need of these residents going to the residential areas meet their needs.


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