“Even if your battalion is willing to provide you with an escort, ask yourself what actions can they reasonably take against the local law enforcement apparatus?”Ī spokesman for the State Department called the situation a legal dispute between two companies, and said it couldn’t intervene. Army cannot protect you from the Kuwaiti government off post,” stated an email sent to linguists by a noncommissioned officer with one unit and obtained by Stars and Stripes. The Army told linguists it couldn’t prevent the arrests. On May 31, days after GLS notified linguists that all of them potentially face deportation, it ordered employees to remain on base unless authorized by managers to leave. In late May, Al Shora published an ad in a local newspaper warning residents from employing or sheltering the Americans, who were wanted for “avoiding contact” with the company, according to a copy and translation provided by the linguists. “You’re using mattresses that 100 people used before you, blankets that you don’t want to even think about.” “Nothing in there is cleaned, ever,” he said. The two spent seven days in what Zinnekah described as a crowded, filthy jail. Ramzi Zinnekah, a former Navy Riverine, was stopped with another linguist at a checkpoint outside the base on May 30. “I tried to explain to them I don’t work for the sponsor company, I work for GLS, the American company,” he said. A former linguist in Iraq, he spent seven days in jail before he was flown to the U.S. Police detained Majdi Abdulghani on May 9 as he prepared to board a flight for an approved trip to Jordan to visit his ailing mother. “My linguists were being charged as runaways and absconders, which is ridiculous because they live and work on the post,” he said. Instead, employees’ names began to return to Kuwait’s so-called “blacklist” for deportation, a move Tolleson blames on Al Shora’s connections. He said he had a plan to move the linguists to the new sponsor in the following weeks. Curbing immigration violations is a preoccupation in Kuwait, where foreigners account for nearly half the population, many working in the service industry.Īfter the Army initially forced linguists to stop work on the post in March, GLS lawyers were able to get them working again weeks later through negotiations with Kuwaiti ministries, according to company President Charles Tolleson. In March, Al Shora turned over the names of GLS employees to Kuwaiti authorities and declared them absent from work and in violation of their working visas. The company has accused Al Shora of lashing out after failing to win the new contract. GLS says it was eager to move employees off Al Shora rolls but was repeatedly rebuffed by Al Shora. It charges GLS with using Al Shora to remain legal in the country while trying to transfer linguists to the new sponsor. Al Shora claims linguists canceled their residency under the company. GLS and Al Shora dispute what happened next.
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