Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 November 1999 Issue No. 454
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

---

	Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters

Breaking the family china

By Dina Ezzat

This has not been the easiest week for Egyptian-Kuwaiti relations. A fight involving an Egyptian worker in Kuwait started widespread riots and opened the door for speculation about the future of thousands of blue- and white-collar workers in this Gulf state. It also put political ties between the two countries to the test.

The problem started with a fight that broke out on Saturday evening, in the Kuwaiti suburb of Khitan, between an Egyptian worker and an Asian supermarket owner over the breaking of some china dishes. The conflict soon escalated, as more Egyptians and Asians became involved. Eventually, Kuwaiti police had to intervene.

"God is Great", "One Arab nation", "Mubarak, come to our rescue", were among the slogans shouted by hundreds, and later thousands, of Egyptians who joined the demonstration.

"The problem is not about the broken china; it is about what many of the Egyptian workers living in Khitan are thinking of as inadequate working and living conditions," one source said. According to this source, many of the demonstrators were frustrated as they recently lost their jobs. Most of those workers knew they could not ask the local authorities or Egypt's embassy in Kuwait to help because they had not had the necessary work and residence permits. But they still felt betrayed because they had paid to get to Kuwait and were abandoned there.

"So, the china incident was really the last straw," said the source.

Speaking before his parliament, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sabah Al-Ahmed criticised the poor treatment to which some Egyptian workers are subjected in Kuwait. This treatment he said, at times, amounts to "slavery".

This could well explain the depth of anger that was manifested that Saturday night in Souq Al-Khirat, where Kuwaiti police forces had to use tear gas to end the riot. Dozens of Egyptian workers were arrested. The arrests themselves further fuelled the fire as other Egyptian workers who live in Khitan demonstrated, burned automobile tyres and hurled stones at police. Egyptian ambassador in Kuwait Mahmoud Abu-Zeid arrived at the scene of the fighting in an attempt to contain the unrest but his appeals for self-control fell on deaf ears.

"The security forces will not hesitate for one moment to curb the destruction of people's property and the disruption of security," Kuwaiti Interior Minister Mohamed Khaled Al-Sabah said.

Security measures included mass arrests and the removal of thousands of Egyptians out of the neighbourhood where the riot started to fairly remote camps. Egyptians later complained about their ill-treatment by police.

Around 60,000 Egyptians -- mostly menial labourers -- are permanent residents of Khitan, a fairly poor suburb 20 kilometres south of the Kuwaiti capital, and many of them are less than happy with their conditions.

Foreign Minister Amr Moussa telephoned his Kuwaiti counterpart to check on the welfare of the Egyptian community, particularly those living in the Khitan suburb. The Kuwaiti minister told Moussa that the situation was under control but that those Egyptians found guilty of violating conditions of residence could be deported. According to early estimates Kuwaiti investigators found irregularities in the work and residence permits of a few hundred Egyptian workers.

The prime ministers of Egypt and Kuwait discussed the issue in a telephone conversation on Sunday, while on Tuesday Minister of Labour Ahmed El-Amawi led an official Egyptian delegation to Kuwait to open a dialogue with Kuwaiti officials on the problem, and on ways of improving living conditions of the 200,000 Egyptians working and living in Kuwait.

"We are going to discuss the reasons behind what happened to prevent it from ever recurring," El-Amawi said, adding that he would meet Crown Prince Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah as well as other senior officials. The minister praised the "complete co-operation received from the Kuwaiti authorities in all fields, particularly regarding Egyptian workers who are not faced with any specific problems."

Foreign Ministry sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that from the very start of the problem, Egypt's embassy in Kuwait acted to contain this "isolated incident" and make sure that it has "no bearing whatsoever" on the strong and close ties between Egypt and Kuwait.

The Egyptian ambassador in Kuwait conferred with concerned officials in the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry to make sure that the legal rights of arrested Egyptian citizens were guaranteed.

"When you have such a big Egyptian community, like that in Kuwait, you are bound to be faced with some fracas once in a while, but the important thing is that these are placed in their proper context," said one Egyptian official, adding that "this recent incident does not at all represent a problem between the Egyptian community in Kuwait and the local authorities."

The status of Egyptians living and working in the rich Arab Gulf states has at times given rise to some tension, albeit subdued, in Egypt's relations with the Gulf states. Many of these problems, Egyptian officials say, occur when Egyptian workers there act in violation of the laws and rules of these countries, most commonly by seeking job opportunities without permits. Officials from the ministries of foreign affairs and labour tour the Gulf states on a regular basis to make sure that the problems are contained.

Over two million Egyptians live and work in the Gulf area and their remittances constitute a significant proportion of Egypt's foreign currency revenues. And while the number of Egyptian workers dropped in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, as the peninsula was hit by financial crises, the one exception has been Kuwait, which has seen the number of Egyptian workers double since the war ended.

	weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg