Captive in Kuwait:
Contract dispute leaves 100 Americans stranded on US Army bases
Published June 18,
2013
FoxNews.com
At least 100 American citizens have been
trapped for months on two U.S. bases inside Kuwait after local police unjustly
issued warrants for their arrest, a U.S. defense contractor told FoxNews.com.
Most of the Americans were working as
Arabic translators for Global Linguist Solutions, which ended a lucrative deal
with its sponsoring Kuwaiti subcontractor, Al Shora International General
Trading & Contracting and signed on with another company. Sources told
FoxNews.com Al Shora's managing director is the sister-in-law of the Kuwaiti
prime minister.
When the contract ended Feb. 17, Al Shora
refused to transfer the employees' visas to the new Kuwaiti subcontractor and
falsely accused the Americans of being "runaways and absconders," according
to Charles Tolleson, president of Global Linguist Solutions. His company has
barred workers from leaving the bases since May 31 to protect them from arrest
and imprisonment.
"We don’t see any hope. We’re dealing
with a corrupt company in Kuwait that has fabricated charges against us." - American citizen trapped on U.S. base in
Kuwait. "My biggest concern is the safety and
security of my employees in Kuwait," he said.
One of the employees, who contacted
FoxNews.com Tuesday morning from Camp Buehring, said, "If we leave the
base, we could be arrested by the Kuwaiti authorities, jailed or
deported."
"We cannot see the doctor even for an
emergency," said the woman, who asked that her name not be used.
"Everybody here is under stress because a lot of us here need to go home.
Our families are worried about us. We need to see our kids... We don’t see any
hope. We’re dealing with a corrupt company in Kuwait that has fabricated
charges against us."
She said the Al Shora's managing director
"cancelled all of our visas here, so we became illegal."
Camp Buehring is in the Kuwaiti desert,
about 25 miles south of the Iraqi border. Other employees of Global Linguistics
are similarly stuck at Camp Arifjan, another U.S. Army base inside Kuwait.
Al Shora is demanding $22 million from
Global Linguistics in order to transfer the employees' visas to the new
company, Kuwaiti Resources House, sources said. Under Kuwaiti law, foreigners
cannot work in the country unless they are under the sponsorship of a private
Kuwaiti company.
After his company re-bid its contract
several months ago and opted to chose the new Kuwaiti company, "Al Shora
basically embarked on a campaign to destroy my company," Tolleson said.
"There’s no contract dispute. I don’t
even have a contract with them anymore," he said of Al Shora. "If a
sponsor is no longer a sponsor, they are required to simply transfer [the
visas] to the new sponsor. This happens all the time. They won’t do that, and
that violates the terms of their former contract."
A representative from the Kuwaiti prime
minister's office said he was not aware of the situation. "This is the first time I heard about
this," the representative, who declined to give his name, told
FoxNews.com. "This kind of behavior has never happened."
He had no comment when asked if the Al
Shora's managing director was related to Kuwaiti Prime Minister Jaber
Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah
Tolleson said that when he approached the
U.S. military about the situation, "I was told this is my problem."
The office for the U.S. Ambassador to
Kuwait referred all inquiries on the matter to the U.S. State Department.
“The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait is aware of
the commercial dispute involving a Department of Defense contractor and a local
Kuwaiti company," Beth Gosselin, as a State Department spokeswoman, told
FoxNews.com. "That dispute has had an impact on a number of private U.S.
citizens working in Kuwait.
"The protection of U.S. citizens
overseas is one of our highest priorities," Gosselin added. "The U.S.
Embassy is working with the private U.S. citizens and is providing them with
appropriate consular assistance. The Embassy continues to monitor the situation
closely and is encouraging an immediate resolution to this difficult
issue."
At least three of the linguists reportedly
spent seven days in a crowded, filthy jail after being caught outside their
base. Majdi Abdulghani was detained by police May 9, as he prepared to board a
plane on an approved trip to Jordan to visit his sick mother, the military
newspaper Stars and Stripes reported.
He spent seven days in jail before being
flown back to the U.S., according to the newspaper.
