KUWAIT: MP OmarAl-Tabtabaei yesterday probed the number of expatriates in the country in aseries of questions to Minister of State for Economic Affairs Mariam Al-Aqeel.Tabtabaei said on his Twitter account that the questions were prompted byreports about an influx of Egyptian workers into Kuwait. The reports said thataround 100,000 new work permits were issued last year to Egyptian workers, witharound 8,000 new Egyptian entrants into the labor market monthly.
Tabtabaei saidthe issuance of a large number of new work permits came even after thegovernment pledged to take measures to rebalance the labor market, includingrestricting the issuance of new work permits. In his questions, the lawmakerasked the minister about the number of expats who entered the country on newwork permits in the past three years based on nationality. He also inquiredabout the qualifications of expats who were recruited in the past three years.
Tabtabaei askedabout the number of expats employed in ministries and other public sector jobsover the last three years, and also the number of unemployed Kuwaitisregistered with the government. He also inquired if those expats obtained theirdegrees from recognized universities. Based on latest figures, the number ofexpat laborers in Kuwait is 2.85 million - a quarter of them domestic helpers.There are also around 550,000 expat dependents - children and housewives -making the total number of expats 3.4 million.
Last month,Director General of the Public Authority for Manpower Ahmad Al-Mousa saidbringing in expat labor is subject to rules mentioned in labor law 6/2010 andits decisions. He said the authority carries out its responsibilities to issuework permits based on employers' requests according to rules that are notrelated to the nationality or numbers of expat workers. He said the labor lawand the law establishing the authority 109/2013 gave it the right to bring inlabor based on employers' requests.
By B Izzak