Despite COVID-19 pressure, Kuwait sees 16% drop in violent crimes, murders last year
Violent crimes decreased to 465 from 559 in 2019
Abu Dhabi: Kuwait’s official statistics showed that the year 2020 was not the most violent in terms of murders and aggravated assaults, compared to these violent crimes committed in the last 5 years, despite the psychological pressure associated with the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, local media reported.
The Public Prosecution’s investigation in murders and aggravated assaults showed that in 2016 there were 718 such crimes, which decreased in 2017 to 619, then increased in 2018 by a small percentage to 646.
In 2019, these violent crimes decreased by a large number to 559, then decreased by an even greater percentage in 2020 to 465, by 94 crimes, or 16.8%.
Although the reasons behind the murders still need research to find out the full causes and limit their increase, especially those crimes against women, which are the most committed in the recent years, but the official statistics showed the nationalities of the perpetrators of these crimes.
Kuwaitis who committed these crimes accounted for approximately 40%, as the prosecution questioned 200 citizens in 2020, and Indians came second with 60 accused, while Egyptians ranked third with 52 accused, and illegals took the fourth place with 51 suspects.
The Syrians came in fifth place with 28 accused, then the Saudis with 18 accused, the Iranians with 11 accused, the Jordanians and Palestinians with 10 accused each, and the Lebanese and Pakistanis with six accused each.
The statistics also showed that there were 12 accused of these crimes of other Arab nationalities.
While 70% of the Kuwait’s population of 4.3 million people is comprised of expatriates, about 60% of them are Arabs, which includes expatriates. The largest expat communities in the country are Indians and Egyptians.