Kuwait launches e-platform to educate migrant workers
Kuwait City– Kuwait has launched an electronic platform in five languages including Hindi and Urdu to educate migrant workers on their legal rights, the Arab Times reported on Wednesday.
Khalid Al Ajmi, Chairman of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, announced that the education would be done through cartoons and pictures as well as direct inquiry through the e-platform or hotline.
The e-platform consists of a website and an application for mobiles that work mainly to address the ill-treatment suffered by the migrant workers, provide them legal support as well as to monitor and document the abuses they are subjected to.
Its languages will be Arabic, English, Hindi, Filipino and Urdu, the daily said.
“The site … stores information and data and protects the confidentiality of the users. It also provides lawyers the task of responding to all of the workers’ inquiries and complaints.”
The platform aims to educate migrant workers in Kuwait on the rights guaranteed by the local laws and international covenants and treaties as well as to provide legal advice in a language appropriate to them, the report said.
It will have information on organisations and embassies that accept workers’ complaints and the procedures and type of assistance provided by them.
“The project aims at alleviating the violations suffered by migrant workers resulting mainly from the lack of awareness of their rights, especially domestic workers,” the daily said.
Indian expat’s jeep snatched in Kuwait
Kuwait City–An Indian expatriate’s jeep was snatched in a suburb of Kuwait city, a media report said.
Three men disguised as security operatives stole the jeep in Jabriya area, Arab Times reported.
The Indian man told police officers that the men intercepted him while he was driving in the area and after ordering him to step out for checks, drove away with the vehicle.
Varadkar to become Irish PM, Mumbai family ecstatic
Mumbai–With the stage set for the swearing-in of Indian-origin Leo Varadkar as Ireland’s Prime Minister, his extended family in Maharashtra is ecstatic and plans to celebrate the momentous occasion.
“Our joy is boundless. But we have not made any formal celebration plans yet. But all relatives shall gather at our home this evening,” dancer Shubhada Varadkar, cousin of the Irish PM designate, told IANS on Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, outgoing Prime Minister Enda Kenny formally tendered his resignation to Irish President Michael D. Higgins, paving the way for Varadkar, 38.
Earlier on June 2, when Varadkar was elected leader of the ruling Fine Gael Party in Ireland, his joint family in Maharashtra had erupted into frenzied celebrations .
At that time, the cancer-survivor Shubhada told IANS how it was like “a dream come true” for her as she had virtually predicted in July 2016 that the medico-turned-politician would some day become the Prime Minister.
Born on January 18, 1979, in Dublin, Varadkar’s Mumbai-born father was a medico who went to England in 1970 and married a nurse, Miriam, and settled in Ireland.
Varadkar joined Irish politics at 22 and became an MP five years later.
Whenever Varadkar and his parents visit India, there is day-long celebration, feasting and merrymaking by the joint family in Mumbai, mostly at the Borivali home.
The family is not so sure whether Varadkar will now be able to make it here owing to security and protocol considerations, but they look forward to his visit.
The Irish PM designate’s extended joint family in India comprises four uncles and five aunts, including Manohar Varadkar, 93, and Madhukar Varadkar, who are freedom fighters, and Avinash, 79, a former Indian Railway employee, and a host of cousins and their children.
