100 US Citizens (Linguists) Jailed, Held Captive, Black Listed (in Kuwait) no fault of their own. While assisting our Military!
Petition Congress on behalf of the 100 US Linguist being held captive in Kuwait!
My name is Regina Salim. I am writing to you on behalf of my husband, Louai Salim. My husband works for GLS (global linguist solutions) as an Arabic interpreter supporting the Army in Kuwait.
As of March 4th, 2013 approximately one hundred US citizens working as translators (including my
husband) have been blacklisted in Kuwait and have been told they cannot leave the country; blacklisting is for people who have broken Kuwaiti law. However in our case this occurred due to a dispute over the contract between GLS and Al Shura, (a sponsor company which issues their working visas in Kuwait), the contract was awarded to another company instead and the people of Al Shura are retaliating against the linguists.
The employees impacted by this issue have been told numerous times that the issue is being worked on. They cannot exit Kuwait due to the charges filed against them by Al Shura (sponsoring company); the charge is absconders , which is not true because they have been working with the Army and Al Shura has a letter from the Military stating that. If they were to exit Kuwait, they have to go through the deportation process, to include imprisonment, interrogation by a Kuwaiti Criminal Investigation division and a ban them from entering any Gulf country (GCC) for 2-5 years, then they will have to get an appeal for the case and have the Kuwaiti government look into the case and perhaps award them a judgment in their favor.
Several linguists have experienced this deportation process, and were jailed for at least a week before they were flown home. Since this problem has occurred my husband has been waiting very patiently for permission to take vacation leave to come home, he and his colleagues are in a Military instillation and are not allowed to go to the city for medical or any other reason, Military Medical Facilities on the instillation are not allowed to tend to them if it s not life, limb or
eyesight. They have also been asked to stop
work, they are living in tents (under barbaric
conditions) and being treated like refugee's in internment camps, they are not working, not going to the city and living in crowded and unsanitary conditions, they are very tense and depressed; some have serious issues at home and need to go either for good or on vacation, some have asked to quit and GLS is not able to release them because they are trapped in Kuwait.
They accepted this job knowing that they would be able to return home to see their families at no risk, they have been told several times that this problem will be resolved but the dates are continually delayed. They are left on the instillation just to wait for an answer as to when they will be cleared to continue to do what they were hired to do, until then they are just sitting, roaming about losing their sanity in the extreme heat along with all this confusion. If they attempt to leave, they have been warned by GLS that they would be arrested.
They are American citizens and they ar
As of March 4th, 2013 approximately one hundred US citizens working as translators (including my
husband) have been blacklisted in Kuwait and have been told they cannot leave the country; blacklisting is for people who have broken Kuwaiti law. However in our case this occurred due to a dispute over the contract between GLS and Al Shura, (a sponsor company which issues their working visas in Kuwait), the contract was awarded to another company instead and the people of Al Shura are retaliating against the linguists.
The employees impacted by this issue have been told numerous times that the issue is being worked on. They cannot exit Kuwait due to the charges filed against them by Al Shura (sponsoring company); the charge is absconders , which is not true because they have been working with the Army and Al Shura has a letter from the Military stating that. If they were to exit Kuwait, they have to go through the deportation process, to include imprisonment, interrogation by a Kuwaiti Criminal Investigation division and a ban them from entering any Gulf country (GCC) for 2-5 years, then they will have to get an appeal for the case and have the Kuwaiti government look into the case and perhaps award them a judgment in their favor.
Several linguists have experienced this deportation process, and were jailed for at least a week before they were flown home. Since this problem has occurred my husband has been waiting very patiently for permission to take vacation leave to come home, he and his colleagues are in a Military instillation and are not allowed to go to the city for medical or any other reason, Military Medical Facilities on the instillation are not allowed to tend to them if it s not life, limb or
eyesight. They have also been asked to stop
work, they are living in tents (under barbaric
conditions) and being treated like refugee's in internment camps, they are not working, not going to the city and living in crowded and unsanitary conditions, they are very tense and depressed; some have serious issues at home and need to go either for good or on vacation, some have asked to quit and GLS is not able to release them because they are trapped in Kuwait.
They accepted this job knowing that they would be able to return home to see their families at no risk, they have been told several times that this problem will be resolved but the dates are continually delayed. They are left on the instillation just to wait for an answer as to when they will be cleared to continue to do what they were hired to do, until then they are just sitting, roaming about losing their sanity in the extreme heat along with all this confusion. If they attempt to leave, they have been warned by GLS that they would be arrested.
They are American citizens and they ar
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