Manama: Kuwait is to deport an Asian expatriate after Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Shaikh Mohammad Khalid Al Hamad Al Sabah stopped him for driving the wrong way on a busy road.
The minister was on his way to mosque for the Friday prayers when he spotted the wrong way driver, the interior ministry media department said.
Alarmed by the driver’s recklessness and high risk to himself and to other drivers, the minister stopped him and called the police, asking them to start the legal procedures to book, detain and eventually deport the offender.
“We urge all drivers to comply with the traffic laws and regulations and avoid legal action,” the media department said.
“All drivers are expected to adhere to a safe traffic culture and not to put their own lives or those of other people at risk,” it said.
Kuwait last year launched several campaigns, including deporting expatriate repeat offenders, in a bid to restore order to increasingly chaotic roads and reform a driving culture that has caused heavy losses in lives and property damage.
The crackdown and awareness campaigns have been held in all parts of the country and for weeks, the traffic authorities gave out the number of drivers they booked and the number of cars they impounded for grave violations.
However, the campaign drive took an unexpected turn after the police were accused of using it to facilitate the deportation of thousands of foreign drivers for serious violations.
But Abdul Fattah Al Ali, the then assistant undersecretary for traffic, dismissed the claims that the crackdown on reckless drivers was used as an excuse to deport foreigners.
“There is no abuse or oppression of the expatriates,” he said. “The law is simply being implemented and it is implemented equally to all. We do value the contributions of the expatriate community and we do reiterate our commitment to upholding the human rights of all people, be they citizens or residents. We also appreciate the role of human rights activists and organisations,” he said.
However, the official added that “claiming that the traffic authorities are using simple road violations to deport foreigners was totally untrue and lacked credibility.”
Social networks and microblogs have been highly critical of the deportation decision after a Kuwaiti official said that 1,258 foreigners had been sent home for traffic violations in a crackdown that began about in April.
The authorities said that only serial violators who were putting the lives of other drivers and pedestrians at risk had been deported.
“What hurts us the most is when a family loses its provider, when a family loses its mother, when parents lose their children and when in some cases, an entire family is lost,” Al Ali said.
