Kuwait: MP calls on deporting expats receiving psychiatric treatment to ‘protect society’
Around 37,000 are receiving treatment at psychiatric hospitals
Kuwait City: On Thursday, MP Bader Al Humaidi announced that he will be putting forth legislation that would require authorities to deport expats who are receiving treatment at the psychiatric hospital in Kuwait in order to “protect society”.
“We will issue a law in the first session of the National Assembly [parliament] to determine the psychological diseases that must be eradicated from the country, those similar to AIDS and hepatitis, and the deportation of all expats who have files in the psychiatry immediately to protect the country, our sons and daughters,” Al Humaidi said in a statement.
He pointed out that around 37,000 expats are receiving treatment in Kuwait and that it is taking a financial toll in the country.
Racist and inhuman
However, responding to his claim the Ministry of Health clarified that the number of prescriptions handed out in the past five years amounted to 15,000 and that the number of non-Kuwaiti psychiatric patients since 1953 to today total 36,000.
Al Humaidi’s announcement sparked outrage in Kuwait, with many doctors and health professionals criticizing the MPs stance calling it “racist” and “inhuman”.