POST MARKS LAUNCH OF 2006 TIP ESF PROJECT FOR

UNCLAS KUWAIT 003747 SIPDIS SIPDIS FOR NEA/ARP, INL/HSTC, AND G/TIP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM KU TIP SUBJECT: POST MARKS LAUNCH OF 2006 TIP ESF PROJECT FOR RAISING AWARENESS OF FOREIGN WORKERS REF: A. KUWAIT 3440 ¶B. KUWAIT 3322 ¶C. KUWAIT 436 ¶D. KUWAIT 262 ¶E. 05 KUWAIT 263 ¶1. (SBU) The Ambassador hosted a reception on September 12 to mark the launch of Project FALCON (Fostering Awareness of Labor Conditions) (ref E). The project is funded through G/TIP ESF funds and is designed to raise awareness among foreign workers of their rights and responsibilities while working in Kuwait. The reception brought together GOK officials from the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Social Affais and Labor, and the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, NGO and international organization representatives, and representatives of the foreign missions of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Ethiopia, Germany and France. The press was also invited and Kuwait's national news service, KUNA, carried a story the following day. Guests praised the project and shared ideas on how to further advance common objectives in protecting the rights of foreign workers in Kuwait. ¶2. (SBU) FALCON has two elements: an informational brochure and a series of newspaper ads. The brochure is printed in nine languages -- Sinhalese, Malayalam, Telugu, Urdu, Bengali, Tagalog, Indonesian, Arabic, and English -- yet is small enough to easily fit into a pocket. The ad campaign began on September 11 and will continue through November, with ads in all five Arabic dailies, two English dailies, the Malayalam and Urdu inserts in one of the English dailies and two free, widely-read classified papers. The content of the brochures and ad campaign are nearly identical and came out of a regular series of meetings between labor source embassies and Post (ref D). Labor source country embassies and religious institutions have volunteered to hand out the brochure and will report back to Post on its impact. So far, these institutions have taken 128,500 of the 500,000 copies of the brochure. The Pakistani and Filipino Embassies each requested 7,000 additional copies of the brochure one month after their original shipment of 7,000. Post will follow up with the others to try to ascertain the rate of actual distribution. Post is also consulting with the GOK to facilitate distribution in the airport and other public places. The Filipino Embassy has already distributed the brochure in the airport and has promised to cooperate with Post in handing the brochure out to workers in places where they gather on their days off. ¶3. (SBU) At Post's first meeting with the source-country labor representatives in January, there was near unanimity that a project targeting Kuwaitis would be at least as useful as one targeting workers. For this reason, Post has proposed additional ESF funding from G/TIP to produce a series of public service announcements urging Kuwaitis to respect workers' rights (ref C). Post looks forward to hearing whether G/TIP will be able to fund this proposal. ********************************************* * For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ ********************************************* * LeBaron