Kuwait joins Saudi in slashing expat numbers

For those heading for a job in Arabia, it may seem the entire Gulf State region is committed to cutting its nose off to spite its face as Kuwait joins with Saudi in aggressively targeting expat workers as a solution to the emirates’ demographic imbalance.

Reports in Kuwaiti local papers quote the emirate’s supreme committee as recommending new measures to lower the number of expats working in the country, presumably assuming local people are queuing up to take their jobs. Higher fees are to target the number of foreign domestic workers, visas per person are to be limited to three per year rather than the present five, and fines for residency violations are to be increased to KD1,000 per day from just KD4 per day.

The expatriate population in Kuwait at present numbers three time that of Kuwaiti nationals, and comprises all sectors from low-waged domestic helpers to highly-paid expat professionals. A memo sent to the National Assembly by the social affairs ministry sets out various measures to be taken to ensure the voluntary departure of a huge number of foreign workers. Women who divorce and request a transfer of their residency permit in order to get work in the private sector are to be refused, and temporary workers are to be forced to leave the country immediately their contracts end.

Other measures in the memo include disallowing expat children from getting family residency permits unless their fathers have residency themselves, and forbidding mothers from sponsoring their children unless they have special skills of benefit to the emirate. Domestics working in embassies will be allowed to leave, but those working for or in bogus domestic help agencies under article 20 residencies will be arrested if discovered. The numbers of foreign security staff and cleaners are also to be reduced by 25 per cent.

The aim of the ever-tightening regulations applied to expatriate workers is, obviously, to rebalance Kuwait’s population structure, although the memo states this must be done without affecting private sector needs, the requirements of development projects or the marketplace. Long-term expatriates working in the emirates have been the main – some say the only - cause of the swift development of the oil-rich region, and are now being blamed for the reality of the 21st century working environment. Wealthy foreign professionals not expecting their hosts to turn on them would be advised to listen for the tolling bell!