KUWAIT: The Kuwait Public Authority of Manpower (PAM) announced the suspension of 16,848 files that were found without valid civil addresses, including 22,863 licenses on which 61,688 workers with residence in the country are registered under Article 18. The workers have a one-month grace period to reconcile their legal status.

This came on the directives of the First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior and Acting Minister of Defense Sheikh Talal Khaled Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to “tighten control over violators of the Labor Law in the private sector” in light of the state’s tendencies towards regulating the demographics.

The Authority gave the employers of the violating files a period of one month from the date of suspending the files with the aim of amending their legal status - indicating that in the event that the legal status is not modified within the specified period, the owners will be referred to the relevant investigation authorities.