Lawmaker seeks debate on expatriate population in Kuwait

A Kuwaiti lawmaker said he was seeking a debate in parliament to address the “settlement” of expatriates in the country and agree on ways to organise their arrivals and stays.

MP Abdul Karim Al Kandari said that Kuwaitis should not be a minority in their own country and that he wanted the parliament to hold a special session to discuss the demographic situation.

“We are not against expatriates and we consider them as our dear brothers,” he said. “We used their assistance to build our nation, but we must have a clear system about their numbers. We do not want to trigger hate speeches, but rather an organisation of the process regarding the expatriates. What we want is just measures to organise presence of expatriates because their number is increasing amid an obvious chaos and lack of control.”

The MP said that he had started collecting signatures from fellow lawmakers to hold the special session on February 2 and launch the debate on the effects of the high numbers of expatriates on the demographic composition of the country.

“The session will focus on the implications of the number of expats on the infrastructure of the state, the health and educational facilities, traffic, electricity and water. We will also focus on the non-employment of Kuwaiti competencies and the government's failure to implement a policy to replace expatriates by Kuwaiti citizens, to put in place appropriate measures to control remittances, and to protect Kuwaitis from any decision to increase prices,” he said, quoted by Kuwaiti daily Al Rai

"What is happening is settlement, but we are not talking about deporting expatriates. It is rather organising the hiring of foreigners in accordance with the needs of the labour market and experiences. We need to train Kuwaitis and to prepare generations that are capable of managing the labour market.”

According to figures released this month, Kuwait is home to 4.4 million people, including 3.1 million expatriates (70 per cent) and to 1.3 million Kuwaitis (30 per cent).

Lawmakers have been pushing for a reconsideration of the demographic structure and a series of short-term and long-term solutions.

However, most of their suggestions centered on deporting expatriates over a period of three to five years or increasing living costs for those in the private sector and imposing taxes on them.

Last week, Safa Al Hashem, the only woman MP in the parliament elected on November 26, blasted the government for not working efficiently on training enough Kuwaitis to replace expatriates and help address unemployment and the demographic imbalance.

In her criticism, she called for increasing living costs for foreigners and imposing taxes on them.

“When expatriates in the private sector have to spend more to be able to live and work in Kuwait, they will ask for higher wages and here the companies will be forced to reconsider their options and will no longer employ unskilled people,” she said. “They will be recruiting only skilled people with higher wages, and in such a case, the private sector will become more lucrative for Kuwaitis. At the same time, foreigners have to pay taxes, even for using roads.”

However, while lawmakers are talking about dramatic reduction of foreigners in the country, the reality in some sectors is biting.

On Monday, a medical source told Al Rai that Kuwait would be left with serious problems in the health sector if the authorities went ahead with much-anticipated plans to reduce the high number of medical and paramedical foreign staff.

“The health ministry simply cannot do away with the expatriates working in the health sector, and that includes doctors, nurses, technicians as well as administrators and accountants and legal experts,” the source was quoted as saying.

“The issue will have even more dramatic dimensions with the expansion of health facilities or the construction of new ones. There will be great needs for staff and the numbers of Kuwaitis are not enough to fill in the vacancies.”

According to the source, Kuwaitis represent only six per cent of the 22,000 male and female nurses working in the country.

“There is also a vast difference in the number of Kuwaiti doctors and non-Kuwaiti doctors. Up to 70 per cent of the doctors are not Kuwaitis and it would be very difficult to replace them with Kuwaiti nationals in the near future.”

A more balanced proportion exists among dentists with 1,400 Kuwaitis among the 3,500 who are working with the Ministry of Health, the source added

source : gulfnews