Kuwait considers deporting expats that lose their job

Kuwait is reportedly considering a proposal to deport expats that lose their job as a means of reducing the foreign worker population.

Current Kuwaiti laws allow expats three months to find new employment but this hampers the country’s ability to rebalance its workforce, the Supreme Council for Planning and Development found in a study, according to Kuwait Times.

The study argued that an expat worker who is terminated because his employer no longer needs his services “puts further pressure on public services”.

It recommended that expat workers only be entitled to their end of service compensation once they terminate their residency visa and leave the country.

The publication said it was made aware of the study’s existence through a source, who did not clarify whether it included both public and private sector workers.

A survey released last month by Kuwait’s Central Statistical Bureau found that almost 95 per cent of employees in the private sector were foreigners. The sector was found to employ 75 per cent of the country’s expat workers, not including 600,000 domestic helpers.

It also found that nearly 58 per cent of unemployed Kuwaitis refuse to work in the private sector, instead preferring to wait until a public sector job becomes available.

The government’s difficulty in encouraging Kuwaitis to enter the private sector casts doubt on its plans to reduce the expat population from 69 per cent of the total today to below 50 per cent, according to Kuwait Times.

However, the SCPD will discuss the study and the possibility of integrating it as an “essential part in its policies to correct Kuwait’s demographic imbalance,” the source said.

Kuwait is also reportedly cracking down on the nearly 53,000 domestic workers in the country who have absconded.

A security team will carry out raids on places believed to be harbouring runaway maids, according to local daily Al-Anbaa.

The country has deported 14,400 expats in the first four months of the year, compared to 26,600 last year, the title said last week.