Indians are scared of job loss due to the newly drafted bill by law makers in Kuwait

Alarm bells for the Indian expat community in Kuwait

Monday, 6th July 2020

The legislative and legal committee of the National Assembly of the Gulf Nation has put forth a constitutional bill draft instructing to bring down the total number of laborers who are natives of other countries and are working in Kuwait. However, the bill is yet to be sanctioned by the other Gulf Nation’s Assembly committee. But, that doesn’t stop the Indians from fearing about a job loss. Nearly 8 lakhs of Indians are working in Kuwait and enactment of the bill into law can make them lose their jobs.

According to the proposal presented in the bill Indian workers constitute the biggest expatriate community in the land of Kuwait and their number needs to be pulled down to nearly 15% of the net population ( about 4.8 millions) of the country. There are nearly 1.4 million Indian workers in Kuwait and if the quota of 15% gets a sanction, that number would fall to nearly 7 lakh.

However, similar quotas for workers of other nations too have been proposed in the bill. For instance, the proposed quota of the Egyptian workers in Kuwait, who make the 2nd largest foreign worker community, is 10% of the total population of Kuwait.

Kuwait also makes one of the most prominent remittance sources for India. In the year 2018, India received near about $4.8 billion as remittances from Kuwait.

In Kuwait there are more foreigners than its own citizens and its own citizens are thus, becoming a minority now. To change things and to reduce the dependence on foreign staffs the new bill has been drafted. Actually Kuwait wishes to free itself of the status of an expat-majority nation. The COVID-19 triggered oil price drop has also contributed to this decision.

As per the reports of the Gulf News with the start of the Coronavirus pandemic the anti-expat rhetoric started to gain an impetus in Kuwait and the Prime Minister of Kuwait; Sheikh Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah has also declared the expat number in the country should be brought down to 30 percent of the country’s total population.

The Indian embassy is closely monitoring the developments with regard to the proposed bill but hasn’t yet commented anything regarding the matter.

Source: Times of India