US embassy cable - 03KUWAIT4661

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 004661 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/RA, DRL, INR/NESA, INR/B, EB 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/08/2013 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, ETTC, ELAB, PHUM, PINR, KU 
SUBJECT: (C) AMBASSADOR TALKS HUMAN RIGHTS WITH MINISTER OF 
SOCIAL AFFAIRS AND LABOR 
 
REF: KUWAIT 4613 
 
Classified By: AMB. RICHARD H. JONES; REASON 1.5 (B, D) 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY:  The Ambassador used his October 8 
introductory call on the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor 
to make him aware of the annual Human Rights Report (HRR) and 
Trafficking In Persons Report (TIPR).  Minister Feisal 
al-Hajji personally arranged for a poc in his Ministry for us 
to follow up with.  The Ambassador underscored the importance 
of effective monitoring of Islamic charities, building on the 
OFAC visit (septel).  Al-Hajji shared some biographical 
information, and affirmed that the Amir's health is 
improving.  END SUMMARY. 
 
(C) MONITORING ISLAMIC CHARITIES 
-------------------------------- 
 
2.  (C) The Ambassador, accompanied by Polchief (Notetaker), 
made his official introductory call on the Minister of Social 
Affairs and Labor, Feisal al-Hajji, October 8, just days 
after accompanying an OFAC delegation to a meeting with the 
Minister (septel).  He began by noting that OFAC was pleased 
with its visit, and is focused on the future and building 
strong systems to assure that funds collected for charity are 
not misused.  Such assurances are in the interest of the 
charities themselves.  Hajji, who was alone in the meeting 
and conducted it entirely in English, stressed that 
transitions take time and that the best way to proceed is 
patiently and gently.  He said "we know the leaders of the 
charities, they are good people, but we don't know all their 
staff, especially abroad." 
 
3.  (S/NF) The Ambassador briefed on 27 suspicious transfers 
totaling about US$2 million ordered by Lajnat al-Da'wa 
al-Islamiya (LDI) through Kuwait Finance House (KFH) and 
Citibank over a period of one or two months after LDI's 
assets had been ordered frozen.  Citibank carried out the 
transfers, apparently unaware they related to a frozen entity 
due to variant spellings of LDI's name, then realized what it 
had done and reported to OFAC.  The LDI representative who 
met with OFAC said initially the charity has only one branch 
outside Kuwait, although he later admitted there were at 
least two; he seemed shocked to learn of these transfers. 
One reason the transfers seem suspicious is that KFH had told 
the Central Bank LDI had no account there.  The Ambassador 
noted that this matter had been discussed with the Central 
Bank Governor, to whom OFAC would provide further 
information; the Minister confirmed that it is the Governor 
who would have responsibility for follow up. 
 
(C) HUMAN RIGHTS 
---------------- 
 
4.  (C) The Ambassador briefed on the 
Congressionally-mandated annual Human Rights Report (HRR, 
which includes a section on worker rights) and 
Trafficking-In-Persons Report (TIPR), and shared copies of 
the most recent issues of both.  He asked for a 
point-of-contact in the Ministry so that the Embassy could be 
sure it reported accurately on all salient developments. 
Hajji interrupted the discussion to arrange for a poc on the 
spot (Mubarak al-Sumait, a Director on the Labor side of the 
Ministry).  Polchief promised to follow up with Sumait. 
 
5.  (C) Worker Rights:  The Minister said he was organizing a 
committee to develop a new labor law for the private sector, 
and noted that a new law had been implemented a week  earlier 
that encourages "Kuwaitization" (the hiring of Kuwaitis in 
the private sector, where they account for far less than 10% 
of workers) and requires a bank account for each worker, in 
order to ensure workers get paid on time and employers do not 
claim to be paying them more than they really are. 
 
6.  (C) KUWAITIZATION:  Hajji gave a clearer explanation than 
the one we relayed in reftel regarding the controversy over 
the Government's new interpretation of the legal provision on 
penalizing companies for failing to meet their required quota 
of Kuwaiti workers.  Interestingly, he used the same example 
as in reftel:  a company with 3,000 workers and a 2% quota of 
Kuwaitis (i.e. 60), that only has 20 Kuwaiti workers. 
 
-- According to the old interpretation, the company should 
pay 500 Kuwaiti Dinars (about US$1,650) times 40 (the 
shortfall of Kuwaiti workers), a total fine of KD 20,000. 
 
-- According to the new interpretation, the company should 
pay the fine not on 40 workers but on 2,000 (the number of 
foreign workers not 'covered' by the existing number of 
Kuwaiti workers).  Because that is such a higher number, the 
per-capita fine has been lowered to 100 Kuwaiti Dinars. Even 
so, the total fine would be KD 200,000, a tenfold increase. 
(NOTE:  the ratio between the new and old total fines varies 
inversely with the quota of Kuwaitis, per the formula:  new 
per-capita fine divided by (old per capita fine multiplied by 
quota).  END NOTE.) 
 
7.  (C)  The Minister admitted that the law does not fit all 
real-world cases, and needs to be restudied, but he insisted 
that the Government's policy is to implement the law while 
the re-examination goes on.  He cited two examples: 
 
-- A cleaning company that employs 7,000 third-country 
nationals as cleaners but does not need 140 supervisors (the 
only position for which Kuwaitis can realistically be 
envisaged, as they will definitely not work as cleaners); 
 
--  a farm that employs 8-10 workers far from the city, i.e. 
far from any bank. 
 
8.  (C) TIP:  The Ambassador specifically urged that the GOK 
close the loophole that exempts domestic servants from 
coverage under the labor law.  He noted the need for action 
against abusive employers who are repeat offenders.  He also 
mentioned concerns about the use of young boys from third 
countries as camel jockeys.  The Minister replied that the 
Public Authority for Youth and Sports forbids employing 
under-age jockeys, though he argued that "my 14-year-old son" 
riding "for sport" (i.e. not 'employed') should not be 
equated with importing a young child and forcing him to ride 
-- which he agreed is an abuse. 
 
9.  (C) BIO NOTE:  Hajji said he served in the Foreign 
Ministry for about 20 years, working his way up from 
'attache' to Director of the Administration and Finance 
Department, and  Ambassador to Bahrain (1988-92). He also 
served as Undersecretary of the Ministry of Information under 
Shaykh Saud Nasser al-Sabah, the ex-Ambassador to the US; he 
resigned when Dr. Saad ben Tafla al-Ajmi, whom he had 
originally hired as an official in the Ministry, was 
appointed minister above him.  He then served as 
vice-chairman of an oil-service company, then as chairman of 
Kuwait Hotels Company.  Noting that Prime Minister Shaykh 
Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah had served as Foreign Minister almost 
continuously from 1963 until his elevation in July of this 
year, the Ambassador and the Minister joked that Hajji had 
progressed more over the past forty years than his longtime 
boss.  Hajji's office was the first place we have seen Shaykh 
Sabah's portrait displayed -- on an equal footing -- between 
those of the Amir and the Crown Prince.  The Minister 
professed his loyalty to the Crown Prince but admitted -- 
lowering his voice as he did so -- that the CP is too "sick" 
to function (NOTE:  that is precisely why the Amir took the 
post of Prime Minister from him and gave it to Shaykh Sabah. 
END NOTE).  Hajji insisted that the Amir has regained a lot 
of strength recently, and never suffered any loss of mental 
acuity. 
 
10.  (C) COMMENT:  We have longstanding contacts in the 
Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, and obtain quite a bit 
of information from them for our annual reports.  This was 
our first opportunity to lay down a marker with the new 
Minister that the GOK's performance on human rights and TIP 
will be closely scrutinized by Washington.  Our desire to 
increase engagement with the ministry at working levels is 
intended to ensure both that we report accurately and 
thoroughly on the situation and GOK actions, and that the 
Government understands USG concerns. 
JONES