Local News

Nepal threatens to sue Kuwaiti companies

Published Date: December 07, 2008

KUWAIT: The Nepalese Embassy in Riyadh has given Kuwait's Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Bader Al-Duwaila two weeks to study the dossiers of Kuwaiti companies employing Nepalese workers in Iraq.

Lawyer Ayed Al-Subai'e, the lawyer acting on the embassy's behalf, has threatened that the concerned companies will be sued in American courts if the embassy's demands over the workers' conditions are not met within the two-week period.

The action follows media reports that over 1,000 Nepalese, Indian, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan workers employed in Iraq by the companies, have been and continue to be maltreated and housed in poorly-ventilated, squalid shacks near Baghdad Airport.

Al-Subai'e also revealed that Nepal had issued a directive in 2004 prohibiting companies from taking Nepalese employees to Iraq after 11 Nepalese workers were killed by insurgents while working in the war-torn nation.

The lawyer said he had been engaged by the Nepalese Embassy in Saudi Arabia to defend Nepalese subjects working for Kuwaiti companies.

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