A Kuwait based insurance company at the centre of a festering dispute between the authorities and the private recruiting agencies that eventually threatened the local job market to that country was sealed this week and its owner arrested for mass-scale irregularities including cheating and fraud, officials said yesterday.

A Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) official confirmed that the insurance company, known as Al-Huqooq was sealed by the authorities in that country and that the controversial insurance premium had been put on hold for the moment.

He added that future dealings with this particular insurance company will be decided after the outcome of the investigations.

Al-Huqooq insurance office

Private job recruiting agencies were up in arms from the start of this year after the insurance company slapped a massive Kuwait Dinar 50 charge on each employee with the approval of the authorities in Colombo.

M. Faizer Mackeen, Secretary to the Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies (ALFEA) alleged that Al- Huqooq was approved by Colombo despite the fact that there were other insurance companies ready to offer a similar policy for a lesser amount of only KD 20, suggesting that certain officials were on the take.

“ALFEA had repeatedly warned that authorities on the dubious character of this so-called insurance company and the threat it posed to the future job market in that country. However the authorities chose to ignore these warnings but instead took on the agencies in a head-on confrontation”, Mr. Mackeen said.
Earlier Foreign Employment Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that the insurance company was chosen after the correct procedures were adhered to and added that ALFEA was worried because it would have to pay this premium from its personal commissions.The policy covers life, healthcare, accidental deaths and repatriation owing to the non-payments of wages, harassment etc., by the employer.

This insurance company also created a diplomatic row when it was allowed to operate an office inside the premises of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Kuwait City, forcing the Foreign Ministry in Colombo to intervene and put an end to its operations.

Kuwait’s head of Mission in Colombo Fahd Al Muthari said this entire insurance issue was called for by the Sri Lankan authorities and that his country had nothing to do with it. “It was purely a Sri Lankan issue”, he said without elaborating.