KUWAIT: Kuwait Municipality on Tuesday issued urgent evacuation and demolition orders for 67 buildings in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh. The order said owners of the buildings must vacate the buildings of residents and demolish them within two weeks of publishing the decision in the official gazette Kuwait Al-Youm.
Director General of the Municipality Manal Al-Asfour said the administrative decision was based on assessment reports by the government inspection center, which deemed the buildings “unsafe and dangerous”. The assessment reports, prepared by the government center for testing, quality control and research of the ministry of public works, concluded the buildings are “unsafe, prone to collapse and pose an imminent danger to life, property and public safety”.
The director ordered concerned authorities to follow up with owners of the buildings to ensure that they demolish their properties within the stipulated period. She warned that if owners fail to demolish the buildings, authorities will do it at the owners’ expense. Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, where hundreds of thousands of expats live, was described by government officials during a visit in April as a “slum” that is “unfit for humans”.
The officials on that tour called for speeding up the construction of labor cities to move thousands of expats from Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh and similar areas to resolve the problem of excessive overcrowding. Hundreds of thousands of low-paid expatriate workers live in Jleeb, a few kilometers away from Kuwait’s international airport. The area has been widely described as a hub for crime and illicit practices amid intense concentration of workers in poorly maintained residential buildings.
