The Kuwait Society for Human Rights has issued its quarterly report on the human rights situation in Kuwait, noting that it “observed during the months of October, November and December a number of positive and negative administrative changes related to the employment file in Kuwait.”
The report, a copy of which has been obtained by Al-Rai, stated on the positive side the Public Morals and Combating Trafficking in Persons Department allocated a hotline to receive complaints of trafficking in persons, while it considered that “the failure to resolve the issue of employment over non-graduate expatriates sixty years and above is one the negative incident of this file.
The following is a list of 14 positive reports monitored compared to 4 negatives.
The 14 positive steps are listed as
1 – The Public Morals and Combating Trafficking in Persons Department has allocated a hotline to receive reports and complaints of trafficking in persons
2 – The Fatwa and Legislation Department considered the necessity of canceling the administrative decision 520/2020 prohibiting issuing work permits to non-graduate expats 60 years and above calling it illegal
3 – The General Administration of Information Systems has added and activated services on the “Sahel” application, which are the transfer of the temporary residence to the previous article and the payment of tickets for the deportees.
4 – Residence Affairs Investigations seized 20 fake offices for the recruitment of domestic workers, and arrested 60 workers violating the law.
5 – The Residence Investigations Department arrested 9 Asians for staying without identification papers.
6 – The Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) resumed work of the inspection committees entrusted with organizing the labor market and controlling marginal workers violating the residence law.
7 – PAM issued Administrative Circular No. (18/ 2021) for the sectors and departments concerned with reissuing entry work visas and issuing work permits and permits in accordance with the usual and established procedures.
8 – Studying the revival of the project to complete the automatic linkage with the labor-exporting countries.
9 – PAM designated an email to report any increase in the costs of recruiting domestic workers.
10 – Emphasized that if citizens wish to allow domestic workers to remain outside the country for a period of more than (6 months) do not automatically have their residence permit cancelled provided they apply to the Residence Affairs Department for permission before the expiry of the period (6 months).
11 – The Ministry of Interior has started implementing a decision to ban delivery bikes driving on highways.
12 – The Residence Affairs Investigations called for not harboring any workers unless they are on personal sponsorship.
13 – The Kuwaiti and Indian sides agreed to bring domestic workers from India, setting new age limit for female workers a minimum of 30 years and no more than 55 years.
14 – The General Secretariat of the Kuwaiti Cabinet commissioned PAM to update the work permit system for migrant workers.
The four negative steps are:
1- PAM issued Administrative Circular No. 20/2021 to stop issuing work permits for those who entered on commercial entry visa starting from Nov 24, 2021.
2 – Until the end of 2021, the status of foreign non-graduate workers over the age of 60 has not been decided upon.
3 – PAM renewed an internal circular it had issued in 2015 prohibiting the annual increase in the salaries of workers in the private sector, limiting it to 50 dinars annually, with the exception of national workers.
4 – Workers whose residence has been forfeited while abroad, their situation has not been dealt with.
