Manama: Around 30,000 Kuwaitis have been banned from travelling for failing to pay their debts.
"The travel ban covers 29,500 Kuwaitis who owe [in total] around KD526 million (Dh6.7 million) for failing to pay dues related mainly to alimony to former wives and consumer loans," Ali Al Dhubaibi, the head of the justice ministry implementation bureau, said.
"Around 13,000 of the citizens facing travel bans have debts ranging between KD100 and KD2,000," he was quoted by Al Qabas daily as saying.
The official deplored the emergence of what he called a new "dangerous culture" that encourages people to go into debt to buy houses or cars, without knowing how they’re going to repay the loan.
"We now have cases of people who rent houses for a long time, refuse to pay the rent and then move out to unknown places without paying anything. There are people who overuse the mobile and when they fail to pay their KD400 bills and the line is cut off, they start complaining that they did not have enough money to pay for the service," he said. "The media has to step into highlight such cases."
Al Dhubaibi attributes this phenomenon to a growing culture of ostentation. "We used to live according to our means, but today, people care so much about showing off. In the West, for instance, students ride the bus to go to the university. Here in Kuwait, our students want to ride only in expensive cars even though they know that they cannot afford to pay their full price."
According to the official, the travel ban is the most efficient means to make people pay up their outstanding debts.
"Some of the people afford to pay their debts, but do not want to do it for various reasons. Fortunately, they pay back when they are about to travel because they know that they will not be allowed to leave the country. Debtors also pay up on religious occasions," he said. "There is an urgent need to start thinking about all these divorced women and their children for instance who do not receive the alimony money because the debtor did not pay up. It is not fair for them, and solutions are needed."
