Kuwait updates residency law, to cut number of expats

Mask-clad residents walk in a neighbourhood of Kuwait City on May 12, 2020, as authorities allowed people to exercise for two hours under a nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (File/AFP)

• The upgraded draft law would also limit the number of foreign nationals recruited by companies each year
• The Kuwait parliament aims to have the legislation ready by October

DUBAI: Kuwait said it will lower the number of expats living in the country within months through a new residency law, national daily Kuwait Times reported citing Interior Minister Anas Al-Saleh.
The state will focus on “skilled,” migrants rather than laborers, and 1.3 million foreigners, who “are either illiterate or can merely read and write,” were not the country’s priority, Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem said.
“I understand that we recruit doctors and skilled manpower and not unskilled laborers. This is an indication that there is a distortion. Visa traders have contributed in increasing this figure,” Al-Ghanem said.
The upgraded draft law would also limit the number of foreign nationals recruited by companies each year and will include regulations based on their skills, he added.
The Kuwait parliament aims to have the legislation ready by October, prior to the November elections, Al-Ghanem said.
Last month, Kuwait’s prime minister, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al Sabah, suggested reducing the number of expats from 70 percent to 30 percent, UAE daily Gulf News said.