Minister of Social Affairs and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Mariam Al-Aqeel stated that among her priorities will be realigning the demographic imbalance in Kuwait by reopening the files on hiring domestic workers and issuing work permits.
The minister also noted that she was preparing a comprehensive report on the government measures to employ citizens in place of expatriates in the private sector, and that she would submit the report to the parliamentary human resources committee at its next sitting. She revealed that some of the measures taken by the government include increasing fines on companies that fail to comply with employing the mandated ratio of citizens in their workforce.
In addition, the minister is reported to be urging the Cabinet to activate a previous decision requiring paying expatriates their indemnity and other dues only after they submit departure forms to ensure the expatriate gets all dues and leaves the country. Another proposal submitted to the Public Authority for Manpower calls for increasing the health insurance and other fees for each expatriate employed by the private sector. However, the minister admitted that this would need further discussion with the ministerial economic committee to study its possible impacts on the local market and to avoid expelling skilled labor.
