September 04, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 3, 1429

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 3: Kuwait's parliament is to hold an emergency session on Sept 10 to debate violent protests by foreign workers over pay and living conditions, speaker Jassem al-Khorafi said on Wednesday.

Khorafi said he received a request signed by 35 MPs in the 50-member parliament to recall the house from its summer recess and would ask the government to attend the session.

The lawmakers said that unrest by foreign workers has “undermined Kuwait's reputation abroad,” and warned it could recur.

Thousands of Bangladeshi workers staged demonstrations in July to demand better pay and living conditions. Police rounded up and later deported around 1,000 of them.

Meanwhile, visiting Bangladesh Foreign Minister Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury held talks on Wednesday with his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah, the official KUNA news agency reported, without giving details.

Kuwait is home to 2.35 million foreigners, more than two-thirds of them Asians from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

Following the unrest, the Kuwaiti government decided to introduce a mininum monthly wage of 40 dinars (150 dollars) for cleaners and 70 dinars (261 dollars) for security guards.

The decision, however, applies only to those working for companies on government contracts. The average monthly pay for Kuwaiti citizens is around 1,000 dinars (3,740 dollars).

MPs and activists have blamed the abuse of foreign labour on the so-called visa traders who facilitate the entry of foreigners into Kuwait for money without giving them jobs.

—AFP