Minister of Social Affairs and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Maryam Al-Aqeel is heading a government team comprising of members from relevant government agencies, to outline procedures to bring back stranded expatriates working in ministries and other government entities.
One of the steps being examined by the team to return stranded government employees is to launch an online database for the registration of public sector expatriate workers currently abroad, with government agencies asked to submit a list of expatriate employees who are currently stranded outside Kuwait to the database.
A large number of expatriates have been stranded abroad due to the precautionary measures introduced by the authorities to curb the spread of coronavirus, including a decision to ban the citizens of 32 countries from entering Kuwait until further notice.
The proposed online database will have similar features to the one implemented as part of the government’s plan to return citizens who were stranded abroad. The team will register expats of specific professions on the platform taking into account Kuwait’s need for their services, with priority given to employees in the Ministry of Health, especially doctors, as their services are vital in the ongoing fight against the coronavirus.
It has been reported that recently the Ministry of Health (MoH) finalized the lists of expatriate medical, technical, nursing and administrative staff stranded abroad. In a related issue, the MoH last month began suspending the salaries of employees, including doctors, technicians and administrators who are stranded abroad and whose vacation days have ended.
Expatriates have been unable to return as international flights were initially halted as the airport suspended its activities in mid-March. When the airport reopened in August, the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in discussion with the health authorities decided to impose a ban on flights arriving from 32 countries to tackle the spread of the new coronavirus.
The DGCA had announced in July that MoH personnel considered essential to providing services in the country, including doctors, nurses and technicians, would be allowed into the country along with their family members. Nevertheless, more than 1000 health personnel, who are employed as doctors, nurses, radiology technicians and laboratory staff remain stranded abroad, most of them from India.
