KUWAIT: Interior Minister Sheikh Thamer Ali Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah affirmed the security establishment's keenness to deal with the new conditions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent rise in crime rates around the world. The Kuwaiti minister made his remarks in a speech at the international scientific conference held yesterday evening via Zoom entitled 'The phenomenon of the spread of crimes in the time of the coronavirus pandemic'. The conference was organized by the Kuwaiti Journalists Syndicate under the auspices of the Minister of Interior.
Sheikh Thamer Al-Ali said the Ministry of Interior has monitored and addressed new crimes of various forms, including violent crimes and cyber-crimes, in addition to crimes related to fraud, forgery and spreading rumors. He stressed on importance of spreading prevention and protection methods to avert crime, as well as significance of activating role of the security media to spread awareness and address psychological and social effects of the pandemic. He affirmed the political leadership's keenness to address all crimes related to the pandemic.
The Director General of the General Department of Security Relations and Information at the Ministry of Interior, Brigadier Tawheed Al-Kandari, said in a similar speech that the most prominent thing that was monitored by the security services during the pandemic period was spreading and following rumors, despite the official state agencies' efforts in commenting on these rumors and denying them. Kandari explained that staying at home for long periods during the total or partial curfew has negatively contributed to raising the rates of cybercrimes and contributed positively to reducing the violent crimes and theft crimes.
At the conclusion of its activities, the conference called for a number of recommendations, including the Ministry of Interior to continuously monitor the crimes that occurred during the Corona pandemic, analyzing them and providing executive recommendations to the relevant official bodies in cooperation with specialists in criminology, psychology, sociology, education, and law at Kuwait University.
The recommendations stressed the need for the Ministry of Education to adopt awareness programs to protect students, faculty members, and workers from crimes developed due to the Corona pandemic. It also called for working on spreading and strengthening the concept of social responsibility, implanting the values of citizenship, whether for institutions, individuals or civil society institutions. A group of specialists in the psychological, social, legal, media, cultural, educational and legal fields from various countries of the world participated in the conference. - KUNA