US report is totally baseless, says Kuwaiti rights activist

A Kuwaiti human rights activist has ridiculed and criticised the US State Department report issued on Friday, which faulted four GCC countries, including Kuwait, on human trafficking.

In an exclusive interview with Gulf News, Al Mutawa, a noted lawyer, called on the GCC countries and authorities in Kuwait to take legal action against the baseless report and demand a public apology from the compilers of the document.

The US criticised four Gulf allies as some of the world's worst offenders in permitting human trafficking on Friday in a rebuke Washington hopes will promote improved human rights in the Middle East.

The State Department downgraded some Gulf countries to the lowest level of compliance in the report which evaluates countries' efforts in fighting the trafficking of thousands of people forced into servitude or the sex trade every year.

Victims in the region were mainly domestic servants and labourers but also included child camel jockeys, according to the report.

"Not only US State Department, but some other Western agencies are also usually coming up with such baseless reports about our countries which we don't accept because they are compiled on rumours and groundless allegations," Al Mutawa claimed.

He, however, said there may be some individual cases and those might be taken into account, but for any individual act, a nation or government cannot be blamed.

"Some contract workers may be found underage, there may be some mistakes in the procedure of hiring them but our countries cannot be blamed for those alleged individual acts," Al Mutawa said.

He called on the Kuwaiti authorities to take legal action against the report and demand a public apology.

The writer is a journalist based in Kuwait.