But is this the first time that our citizens have been returned from Kuwait or other Middle Eastern countries?
So, for Kuwait to deport these people, whether for COVID reasons or not, but especially during the “last ten days” of the Ramadan, when the Holy Quran is said to have been delivered, and close to EID was not only the worst diplomatic “salmafo” but seemingly abhorrent to many.
Some people are so incensed by this, that they are suggesting, the government should have employed shot gun diplomacy and REFUSED ENTRY to its OWN citizens because they believe that these people may be infected (understandable) and that the airport had been locked down.
In the meantime, such people are happy to unashamedly carry documents which “ request and require in the name of the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hinderance and to afford him or her every assistance and protection of which he or she may stand in need” – as written on page 1 of their passports.
In 2015, Kuwait took significant steps towards combatting human trafficking, including establishing a specialized counter trafficking unit in the Ministry of Interior, passing Domestic Worker Law 68/2015 to regulate working conditions, and most recently by establishing the Government Shelter for Foreign Workers; where the IOM has been facilitating some of its AVRR programs.
