Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

This brought tears to my eyes. This is so terrible, I never thought living in one of the richest countries in the world pro capita that the government could let these poor people live like this.
Those children are filthy. They look like they haven’t seen a hot bath with bubbles in a long, long time.
This is infact, quite heartbreaking and I’m now disgusted at the fact that they don’t do something.
We have places, of course, like this in the UK, but, the government would be right in their and take those kids out to foster homes. I for one, would definately foster one of these kids, give them food and water and perhaps, TLC.
The man in the 2nd picture will be the little boy in 40years unless this vicious circle is stopped.
Poverty is like a disease. It is worldwide. . but. . really, there is no need for it.

So sad to see this in my country… where is BALADEYA !!!!

It’s not only heartbreaking to see those children, but it is also heartbreaking to know that ppl don’t even know that such ppl exist in our country, They only see salmiya and think that kuwait is good everywhere. so sad…

very strange and shocking , looks like india or pakistan …kuwait is the strangest place on earth they should shoot a movies there mafia..crime or something …. lets invite Angelina Jolie to kuwait 🙂 she can adopt some kids from jaleeb shwaikh hehehee

I believe that kuwait is great place and thats why we still here till this moment ,”im not kuwaiti” this is done by themselves if they cant afford good living here why they keep coming!? its not their country and they are not refugees here and nobody kicked them out from their countries its THEIR CHOICE they came to work or as visitors and stick to this rich generous lovely small HOT country like the gum in the hair, the government made it easy for those who r staying illegally by canceling the residence penalty on them if they leave kuwait “very fair and merciful” instead of put them in jail for what they do in jaleeb
” like prostitution, robberies,law braking, and giving bad image , human rights problems…etc” if they are poor in their country just take a look at the photos they will not be more miserable there its better for them to save their dignity and leeeeeeeave
so lets be fair to kuwait why the government still silent? they doing them a favor!! because kuwait for sure not happy with this but those people want this. lets imagine that jaleeb moved in a blink of an eye to switzerland what the government their will do i bet they will kick them out to their countries in a day or two
its not kuwait or kuwaitis mistake as long we believe we “humans” have the right to chose

@ Highsky
Your lack of compassion (and awareness of the issues) is quite remarkable. Perhaps a country that takes such advantage of and benefits so much from cheap Asian workers could do a little bit more to help them. But of course, why would that happen when there are freebies to hand out to Kuwaiti citizens?

This is absolutely horrendous, I hear the living conditions of workers are actually worse than what we see in these photos.. Some people in Kuwait i’m afraid to say lack compassion not to mention intelligence (Highsky). Instead of our parliament dealing ridiculous issues that prevent us from moving forward into 21st century they should actually be trying do something that might just benefit our society. Very sad indeed, Kuwait has so much potential but im loosing more hope every day when I see many of our kids grow up to be a bunch of materialistic ignoramuses.

Where would you live if your basic salary is KD 30?

Lovely, clearly everyone isn’t entitled to their opinion as many laws attest to, but even if they were, that doesn’t mean people’s opinions can’t be criticised for a lack of intelligence or compassion. What Highsky wrote clearly lacked both.
Your own post highlights one small aspect of the exploitation of workers whilst ignoring other (more important) systemic factors that could be directly tackled by authorities. The simple fact is that they choose not to, largely because a cheap workforce has major financial benefits for the economy as a whole.
There’s nothing to prevent the introduction (and enforcement) of just labour laws to protect the people who need it most. Unfortunately, they are the least able and the least likely to get it. This isn’t just a Kuwait issue, this relates to all of the richer gulf countries. Exploitation of workers has been going on for too long and reflects poorly on the region. Basic human dignity and rights have taken a back seat to uncontrolled materialism and greed, which is a great shame.

Looks like the many Favelas in Rio, but I don’t recommend anybody going to Rio to visit them. Extremely dangerous and shady area.

Lovely, Highsky can say whatever he likes as far as I’m concerned, but I also feel free to respond as I see fit. You said “it is uncalled for to point fingers at people with refering to their ‘lack of intelligence’ or ‘lack of compassion’. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.” He can have his opinion, but if said opinion clearly displays a lack of insight and compassion, then I will respond. What he posted just smacked of the right wing nonsense I hear in my own country – blaming ‘Johnny foreigner’ for all the woes in their own country and completely ignoring the inhuman conditions many of these people are often trapped in.

Does that place really exist in Kuwait?

I couldn’t believe that till i noticed half dinar on the child’s hands !

So terrible!

food and water and perhaps, TLC.

these kids are too young for drugs

Why the hell are you people comparing this to bagladish or any third world country? dont cherry pick what you eligible to be compared too or not. kuwait is an oil rich country with money coming out of the kazoo, this is not even acceptable in countries that rank way behind you in gross income .

I really care about kuwait, i was born there, kuwait got the most broken-down market economy system, rather than paying every one 200KD every turn of the week, you’d rather see it getting used in upgrading this countries services (schools, electricity, ect..),
you are building malls more than you are buying desk’s and books for school kids, this is not an ad hominem attack on kuwaiti’s or kuwait, just take it as constructive criticism.

what pisses me off most is seeing people leave the gulf, to get a proper university education from anywhere else. when they have the potential to be the education and research hub.. sad really.

/rant off

This is the confluence between a 5-star socialism on the one hand and rampant capitalism on the other. This grey area falls is questionable – who ensures that citizens and expatriates receive adequate standards of living? To make money, profit has to be gained, but at whose expense? Should someone control this? For a country that boasts free education and healthcare, morality comes into play in the decision-making for the wellfare of its people, right? But to what extent?
We are fortunate that the oil money goes directly into the pockets of the nationals. But what about the country itself, physically? should we not have better streets and projects? Why should jleeb and the salmiya ghetto as well as hawalli, farwaniya and others suffer, are they not part of the country as well?
Modern Kuwait was built with a vision for the future. It has sustained us this long, but I think Kuwait outgrew its expectations. Particularly over the last few years, the population growth has been in tension with rising real estate prices and more expensive costs.
Salaries in many countries, as well as cost of living, has increased significantly. What would happen now if, let’s say, taxes were imposed in Kuwait to expats. Who would stay? How would we sustain our businesses and everyday lives?

Am so sorry for them, but as zaydoun mentioned there are many kuwaiti ladies helping out there.
Other people may be there to help us, teach us, guide us along our path, but the lesson to be learned is always ours.

I lived in Jleeb Al Shuyoukh for 18 years of my life. I was born and raised there. I lived in Abbasiya, which was a lot better than this place, but we went here often and know what it is like. These bangladeshi, indian and pakistani workers live 5 in a 1 bdroom house, and share living expenses. The conditions are horrendous. This was shown on BBC about 4 years back, where they spoke of the poor living conditions. These people work in small jobs like garbage cleaning, welding, car mechanics, etc. They get paid about 40 to 80 dinars a month. They spend about 20 to 40 on rent.

Shame on all the people who said this is better than bangladesh, india or pakistan. Have you seen these countries, not all places are this dirty. Also, these people come here for a “better life”, but they get caught in a vicious circle. I went to an indian school in kuwait, so I know this from first hand experience. Lots of kids here are dirt poor, as their parents dont make much, plus send a good amount of their salary back to their home country to look after their poor family.

Kuwait is an oil rich country. They made a $10 billion surplus last month. This can be expected of my home country(india), since there are 1.6 billion mouths to feed….not Kuwiat! Kuwait gets cheap labor from these asians, and then screws them over. You do realise what would happen to kuwait if the south asians left. Then again, maybe thats why they let these conditions continue?

There was an article in Kuwait times about it

https://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MjAzMzM0OTcxMw==

Ok ! let me set the record straight! i can safely assume that most of you who have commented above have never been to Jeleeb and even if you’ll have, chances are you’ll didnt see the whole picture. For a person who has lived there for quite some time let me tell you that not the entire area looks like that..there are 100’s of decent families who live there in decent houses that look nothing close to those pictures. Let me add that these families are all expats working as professionals in leading companies in kuwait. It is true that the living conditions in these areas are not the best. nevertheless alot of these families who very well come from respected backgorunds like other nationalities do, cannot afford to live in high rise buildings because of the several expenses an expat has to incur on a daily basis. Not to mention that expats here do not have acess to any ameneities/benefits.The reason for writing this post is NOT to spur another endless and monotonous argument on how this country is and what the government should be doing to help expats and how expats demand their rights from the government. That in itself is an argument that can never be discussed unless everyone and i mean everyone is willing to see the real and whole picture . The point of this post is to highlight the fact that NOT the whole of Jeleeb looks like that and not all people living there come from slums of the subcontinent. You’d be surprised to see our beautiful homes back home. Unfortunately, sometimes circumstances demands a lot of compromises!

hi.. Cymraeg I didn’t say they dont have dignity what i said is they should save it before they lose it!!! ” which means i assumed they still have it” but NOW I doubt it!! look at the pictures its impossible to live like that with your dignity being dirty no health no clean place to play in being frustrating like that rather than laughing and playing ,why we dont like to face the truth?,
in every message you people keep mentioning ( money-KDs- the amount they pay-how much they have to pay ) why you measure everything as amount of money!! its very simple they can go to the authorities and say the truth about eqama traders and thats it they will give them the green light to go home but they trapped by their choice and they are partners in the crime with the traders!!

one question please to the people who wrote lack of compassion and intelligence about me HOW MUCH IT COST FOR YOU TO AVOID YOUR SON TO BE LIKE THOSE KIDS???
10kd?
10000?
10000000?
100000000?
i think its not even enough you would pay more right? even you would pay your life !! so dont talk again and again about money that they paid to come to kuwait!!!!

money should make our life easier safer cleaner happier brighter not to make it miserable frustrating and sad like this…
the good leader would leave the war right in the moment when he or she feel the lose not keep fighting and sacrificing others life just because he lost some lives in the beginning why the risk?!..and try compare those people situation now and before 1 year is it better now?? i think its worse and getting worse, those kids are lost they are on pause their life stopped since they entered kuwait no future no nothing and i feel sorry for them but not sorry for the one who have the decision in the family its his mistake and its his governments mistake in their country im sure they know the situation here and they know what qualifications those people have and what they will do here or work as what so they should advice them to stay and ban them from traveling to kuwait to avoid this situation …see again its not kuwait or kuwaitis problem !
the whole thing for me is like a prostitute trapped by here choice in a gang ,, which better in your opinion to leave and start over and live peacefully even if the start from scratch ??? or staying and suffering more and more just because she lost one or two or three or 1000 thing in the PAST ..
I dont know how you people think!!! considering money all the time is our mistake it is the reason for the war every where in this world ..anyway im sorry if you misunderstand me and i forgive who said lack of intelligence and compassion about me 🙂 ..im not flying high this is TO U2 😉

Looking at the photos makes one wonder if Kuwait has divorced areas such as, Jleeb, Hassawi and Kheitan from the rest of itself. Heaven forbid, if tomorrow these areas are invaded no one in Kuwait will care two hoots about them – so much for your sense of patriotism, propriety and nation
building

Im sorry I thought these were pictures of Kuwait in 2008 if someone hadnt invented modern machinery and cars, come along and explained what oil is, then got it out of the ground and then helped sell it.

I guess the world is all about luck and should Sri Lanka have been awash with oil and they were shipping in Kuwaitis to work for KD30 a month in what is little more than human trafficking it all would have been different.

once i started this post https://248am.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4987

and i was bashed why well i dont know either people here dont know about the dirt that lies under the shine of kuwait i have been there myself i have felt their pain that they go throw everyday.plz people stick ur head out of the window and look at these face which expect something of u people .there are people who drive cars worth 1000s but would not give half kd to a poor kid those real bastards i must say.and there are heavenly people who cares about human kind not just themselfs or their familes allah bless them all.

Lol @ the Kuwaiti bashers. Keep bashing, it’s not going to change anything. Dave, those “people” you talk about, if they had money, they’ll be just as racist as we are. Check out the Bengalis and Indians in England. Pompous, racist and rude.
Our country is generous, Dave. Get your head out of your arse. We do help a lot of people. These people happen to be unfortunate. Don’t be envious of what we have. There are a lot of Kuwaitis struggling with debts. Have you seen the Bengalis begging at the traffic light? They make more money that I do. They can get by, if they need to. They just need brains.

Btw, this is not America with its American Dream. Oh and get your facts straight, people went to India for trade. My family has been in this business for centuries. We were never “poor” and my uncles never went to India to “work”. Do your research before you make your pompous claims.

@ Laila
I’m not envious. I have a decent job and make reasonable money, but that doesn’t mean I have lost all sense of social responsibility. There is nothing pompous about it. And your attack on Indians and Bengalis in the UK is based on what exactly? I’m British and I’ve not experienced what you say, though I’m sure many Bengalis and Indians in England can testify to being on the receiving end of racism. Individuals can be rude, racist, and pompous, but why paint a whole community in such a way? What are you trying to prove?

Many Kuwaitis may well be in debt, but some of that is down to personal choices – large families, expensive cars etc. etc. Am I supposed to feel sympathy that some Kuwaitis spend more than they make if what they make is generally considered a good wage? Most still live a very nice life. As for those Kuwaitis actually in poverty, well, my sympathy goes out to them, but they do have a social safety net that isn’t available to foreign workers, so I would hope their position is a little better. And your comment about making less than Benagali beggars is just ridiculous.

I poorly phrased my point about Arab-Indian work – what I meant was that a lot of the wealth from trade was in the opposite direction in the past – many people had to trade and work out of this region in order to make a living. There wasn’t the disparity of wealth that has become very transparent in the years since the discovery of oil – a disparity that has been underscored by the bringing in of huge numbers of very low paid workers. The wealth from oil has made it too easy for some people to look down on people who are brought over to do more menial work. When the poor treatment becomes institutionalized, then it is a real problem.

This is not an anti-Kuwait rant, so there is no need to get defensive. There’s a great deal wrong in my country, England, and I’m quite willing to accept that, but that doesn’t somehow make the things that are wrong in Kuwait better. If things are wrong, then they are wrong wherever they may be. Kuwait has the money to greatly improve conditions and offer a living wage to the poorer expat workers. What would be so wrong with that?

Laila- sounds like you have no idea! You have contradicted yourself so much. Go over to jleeb and spend a few nights there and maybe you will learn to feel some empathy for others. Your attitude stinks.

it’s sad. you should see how sulaibiya looks like, as well as other areas in Jahra, Salmiya and Hawalli too. Some people still live in mud houses with no roofs. I know that KRCS gives out food to poor people in Kuwait on a monthly basis so they’re not forgotten like some might think. Anyone can donate their items to KRCS, be it clothing, money, blood etc.