Cairo: More than 70 thousand expats will have to leave Kuwait next year as the country has decided not to renew the residency permits of persons who are turning 60.
Kuwait’s Public Authority of Manpower has also compiled lists of such expatriates.
However, the persons whose children are working in Kuwait can get an exemption as they can switch from residency to dependent visa.
Apart from it, the work permits of expatriates who are turning 58 and 59 will be renewed for one year only.
Demography of Kuwait
Recently, the Kuwaiti government has decided to minimize the recruitment of foreigners as it wants to address the issue of demographic imbalance in the country.
Currently, the population of Kuwait is 4.3 million and out of it, only 1.3 million are Kuwaitis and rest are expatriates.
Kuwait expat quota bill
Earlier, the Kuwaiti government had drafted a bill to impose a cap on the number of expats working in the country.
The draft bill states that the number of Indians and Egyptians working in Kuwait should not exceed 15 and 10 percent of the Middle East country’s population respectively. It has also imposed caps on the number of expats from other countries.
Probable impact of bill
After the enactment of the law, around eight lakh of over 9 lakh Indian expats will be forced to leave Kuwait.
Out of them, three lakh workers are from Telangana and the Andhra Pradesh States.