Kuwait’s Public Authority of Manpower has issued new conditions for movement of expatriate workers as it seeks to organise the labour market and reduce the rate of marginal workers.
All foreign workers moving from private to public sector must obtain approval of the Civil Service Commission based on relevant regulations, the spokesperson of the authority explained.
Another change is that for a worker to move from public to private sector, they must prove justifications for their need according to economic activity or contract project in which the employer is involved.
This is in addition to evaluation of whether the employer deserves to include other workers on his license, while the profession should tally with the academic attainment. Central Administration for Statistics has revealed that the total number of workers in the country is around 2.2 million, Arab Times reports.
Kuwaitis cover 361,500 of the number as against 1.7 million expatriates. Workers from non- Arab Asian countries have the highest portion of 50.6% followed by Arabs who constitute 29.9% at a total number of 611,000.
Indians and Egyptians are on top of the 10 nationalities with the highest numbers of about 570,000 and 470,000 respectively. It was reported that total number of expatriate workers registered at the Public Authority for Manpower reached 1.6 million from 165 nationalities.
The manpower authority is planning to ban issuing permits to expats with university degrees entering Kuwait to work in the private sector unless they have a minimum of ‘good’ GPA, according to government sources, as reported by International Investment.
Kuwait has deported 13,000 foreigners since the start of year as the government ramps efforts to reduce the country’s foreign workforce, estimated to make up 70% of Kuwait’s roughly 4.5 million population.
