WIEF

Salaams Habibis.

I hope and pray all is well in the lives of my readers, inshaAllah.

Just thought i'd write a quick post regarding my attendance of the 4th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in Kuwait as part of the British delegation with the Muslim Council of Britain.

Alhamdulilla 34 people were present as part of the UK delegation and attended the 4 day event at the end of April. The reason behind the event was to do an Islamic versino of the World Economic Forum where lots of world leaders come to discuss the issues of the day and how things can be solved, but WIEFF, it was primarilly Muslim countries being represented. There was also a great opportunity to network with random people froma cross the world and to see how Muslims around the world are fairing.

Personally i went just to check out the event - to see how these things work, if there is much benefit to be had etc. Alhamdulilla, in all i think the event itself was pretty interesting. the speakers, which included the likes of Blair, King Abdulla, Hamid Karzai as well as many prominant businessmen spoke of the need for muslim countries to invest in their economies, allow multi-nationals to come in, etc. The networking opportunities were also good, although i think it was more useful for people involved in buisness (eg import/export etc) than random people like myself.


ANYWAY, the biggest thing to come from the event was not event based, but the plight of immigrant workers in Kuwait. Generally, even amongst arabs, Kuwait seems to have a very bad reputation in terms of the people and how they treat others. But the treatment i saw there was really shockign but also very saddening that it was from a Muslim country. Anyway below is a letter that someone from our delegation penned to the Kuwaiti Embassy in London which i think describes everything.

May Allah bring humility into all of us and enable us to treat others as we would want to be treated. Ameen.

Salaam

--------------------

Dear Sir,

We were very fortunate to visit Kuwait as part of the UK delegation to the 4th World Islamic Economic Forum held in Kuwait City 28th April to 1st May. Congratulations on holding a very successful conference.

We had the opportunity to see and visit many of the famous landmarks in Kuwait City, such as the Kuwait Towers and Masjid Al-Kabir.

During our travels, we encountered many workers from the Indian sub-continent and primarily from Bangladesh. We learnt a great deal of information about life in Kuwait and the truly cosmoplitan nature of the ex-patriate community residing in Kuwait, engaged in numerous professions, and making an excellent contributon to the well functioning of the Kuwaiti economy.
However, one theme that we heard repeatedly from numerous Bangladeshi workers is the alleged maltreatment of the Bangladeshi low skilled labour force. Amongst other things, we were told about:

- Very low pay, KD25/KD30 monthly salary.
- Salaries are not paid regularly, often being paid once every 3/4 months; and even then, only for one month's work, despite being in arrears for several months
- Workers being paid through their bank accounts, but often the employer maintains control of their cash withdrawal card and only allows them to withdraw part of the salary i.e. lower than the official amount
- General degrading and mistreatment by their employers

According to these low-skilled workers, other ex-patriate professionals and the Bangladesi high commission staff, some Bangladeshis are engaged in illegal activities. However, they feel that the whole community of 240,000 Bangladeshis are judged and treated through the same degrading lens based on the actions of a few. Indeed whilst we were in Kuwait we read a front page article in the Kuwait Times newspaper quoting a parliamentory candiate advocating the deportation of all Bangladeshis from Kuwait. Some of those we spoke to offered an explanation for some of the illegal activity that Bangladeshis are involved in: because they are often pushed to the limit and are without a basic level of subsistance, due to being unpaid, they are more likely to become engaged in illegal activities to support themselves and their families; and when engaged in such activities it becomes a self perpetuating vicious circle, causing harm to them, their families and of course to the Kuwaiti society.

We have found in our country when dealing with the causes of urban decay and crime in London and other major cities, that treating people justly, ensuring equal and fair access to justice, giving all people a stake in society through forms of civic participation, educating people about and taking measures against forms of prejudice, racism and discrimination, creating hope and supporting good citizenship, all make a real difference to tackling crime and promoting urban regeneration. We have found that people generally like to give back to society when they feel valued as a member of society and it is when they feel disenfranchised, alienated and deprived that they engage in uncivic activities and display the worst of human characteristics.
As your excellency and your government is very well aware, we now live in a knowledge based world economy. Our government in the UK and many other leading European and US governments have recognised this as a key determinant of the future prosperity of our economy and our nations.

Accordingly, we have enacted laws that invite the very best talent from all over the world to be able to come and seek employment in the UK in key sectors of our economy. We are well aware that Kuwait too has an open policy to attract talented professionals from around the world. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that there are now many more opportunities for top talents from around the world who can seek opportunities in Europe, US and Canada on an un-precedented scale. In the battle for the very best talent that all competitive economies of the world are seeking, quality of life, standing in society, level of acceptance by the indigenous population and the long term settlement opportunities will increasingly become the deciding factors in the choice of top employment country destinations. As friends of the state of Kuwait, we would like to politely draw your attention to these trends.

To our sadness, when we engaged local Kuwaiti citizens on these issues, their general reply was that the plight of the maltreated ex-patriate workers is not a major issue or a priority for Kuwait. Instead, they insisted that many Bangladeshis are inherently criminally inclined. They generally refused to give attention to our suggestion that the problems are rooted in much wider social issues and cannot be dealt with unless the underlying social and economic causes are addressed robustly.

We do not believe that this is the policy of the State of Kuwait. We further believe that the State of Kuwait sincerely believes in the universal value of equality of all people, and that justice, meritocracy and good conduct are some of the key defining priciples for standing in society.
We would very much like to hear back from you regarding the Kuwaiti government's views on the issues highlighted above. Furthermore, we would like to hear from your excellency details of the steps that your government is taking to address these issues.

We very much look forward to receiving your reply.

Yours faithfully.