Kuwait to cut expats by 100,000 annually – Visit-to-work transfers to end April 1

Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Thekra Al-Rasheedi yesterday said her ministry was processing necessary measures for reducing the number of foreign workers in Kuwait by 100,000 annually. “The strategy envisages bringing down the total number of expatriate workers to only one million in 10 years,” Rasheedi said in a statement to KUNA. “It’s part of the ministry’s efforts to regulate the labor market, curb the phenomenon of marginal labor and restore the demographic equilibrium of the country,” she explained, adding the transfer of all kinds of visit visas into work permits would be halted from April 1 while those already approved would go ahead.

Rasheedi said that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor has been linked online with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Kuwait Municipality and that the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce has been tasked to define the legal job descriptions of businessmen. Moreover, Rasheedi said that hiring workers would be restricted to local ones only without bringing any more from abroad. She also stressed that a special inspection team had been formed to make sure employers are fully committed to private sector labor regulations. – KUNA

Read more: http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2013/03/19/kuwait-to-cut-expats-by-100000-annually-visit-to-work-transfers-to-end-april-1/