The Kuwaiti progressive movement emphasized the need to address the causes of the riots in the centers, and mentioned that the government is partly responsible for the exacerbation of the problem of residency violators by allowing the residency visa traders to operate for years, in addition to the parasitic capitalist economy that allows the bringing in of millions of expat workers to be exploited, reported Al Rai Daily.
The movement said, in a press statement, that the emerging coronavirus and while Kuwait was enforcing the procedures to handle it, highlighted the problem of a cover up and underestimation of the issue of expat labor, including the problem of the so-called demographic imbalance, and the problem of expat residency law violators. The victims of expats workers are treated as the source of the spread of the new coronavirus, and in the best cases, it was about limiting the responsibility of the residency visa traders, while the responsibility of the government and its agencies was forgotten including permitting the existence of this problem and its aggravation due to tolerance of the perpetrators’ illegal activities.
Not to mention the failure to punish the corrupt partners in government decisions who facilitated their bringing in possibly millions of workers to Kuwait without providing them with real job opportunities, in exchange for payment. There is also the matter of government complacency in dealing with many Private sector companies that have laid off their workers after the end of government projects.
Also, another reason for the demographic imbalance is the parasitic capitalist economy system that brings in millions of expat workers to exploit them as a cheap workforce.
The movement concluded its statement by saying, “We are at a time when we do not justify such incidents as the riots, but we cannot ignore its causes, and warn that unless this problem is properly addressed, taking into account many considerations, including human rights and the current exceptional circumstances, the incident will repeat and may grow. ”