Kuwait Cabinet in its weekly virtual meeting last week approved the draft for amending the foreign-residency law. The proposed law, which has remained largely unamended for more than five decades, is expected to bring about several changes to the existing law. The proposed law has reportedly been submitted to His Highness the Deputy Amir for submitting it to the National Assembly for discussion and approval. The bill, if approved by parliament, will then be placed before His Highness the Amir for ratification and publication as law in the official gazette Kuwait Al-Youm.
The proposed law seeks to modernize the antiquated Aliens Residence Law, which was first enunciated through Amiri Decree 17 of 1959. The new law aims to bring forward elements of the previous law, as well as align it with present conditions and the prevailing demographic imbalance in the country. It would see around 370,000 expatriates deported in the short-term and as many as 2.5 million over the years. The new law seeks to limit the number of expatriates that a business can recruit each year and stipulates skill levels for recruiting workers, as well as tightening control and scrutinizing the issuance of new visas.
The main emphasis of the draft law is to curb the phenomena of visa trading and penalize such traders. In addition, the law will allow for strident penalties on those not working for their sponsors, including marginal workers, illegal residents and those who overstay their visa periods, as well as on employers who fail to pay the due salaries of their workers.
Earlier this year, the Speaker of the National Assembly Marzouq Al-Ghanem called on the government to hold visa traders responsible for the large number of unemployed marginal workers in the country and to refer them to the Public Prosecution. He pointed out that Kuwait does not tolerate injustice and abuse of workers, especially since visa traders collect money from the poor laborers and then leave them stranded on the street without jobs. Pointing out that there are more than 1.3 million expatriates in the country who are “illiterate or can barely read or write”, the Speaker suggested that the country should move to a focus on hiring only skilled workers rather than unskilled laborers.
The new law now specifies penalties for breach of the law. Visa traders who sell visas and facilitate the entry of these expatriates to the country, as well as renew their residences will face a jail-term of up to three years and a fine ranging from KD5,000 to KD10,000. The fine will be imposed on each visa that the visa-trafficker sells to a foreigner and brings into the country. The punishment is set to double if the crime is perpetrated by civil servants, or if the offense is repeated within five years.
Expat workers who pay for work permits or for residency renewals will similarly be penalized with a one-year jail term and a fine of KD1,000 following an investigation by the Public Prosecution. Employers who fail to pay wages to their expatriate employees will be given jail sentences of up to two years and fined between KD5,000 and KD10,000. The same penalty is applicable for foreigners who are apprehended for working illegally under other employers. Provisions in the new law also require employers to inform authorities if their expat employees leave the job or if their residency is cancelled and they do not leave the country. Violators of this provision will receive fines that could range from KD600 to KD2,000.
The law sets a maximum of five years for a residency visa before renewal, with a 10-year long-term residency visa being given to foreign investors, foreigners who own real estate, foreign women divorced from their Kuwaiti husband and have children, as well as to the husband and children of Kuwaiti women.
Another highlight of the bill is the call for setting up an ‘expatriate solidarity fund’ that will be funded through special levies on a number of services provided to foreigners and private businesses. The fund will be used to cover the repatriation costs of expatriates who are deported from the country, as well as to pay workers their unpaid salaries after a final court verdict, if the employer delays or refuses payment. The fund will also cover any blood money payments for expat workers who die or are disabled during or because of the type of their work.
The proposed law stipulates a KD5 social solidarity fee for issuing or transferring residency visas, and for acquiring driving licenses and car registrations, with a KD3 fee set for renewals of the same, and on flight tickets issued in Kuwait. A KD1 surcharge is also planned on electricity bills, and on issuance and renewal of civil IDs. In addition, there will be levies on the state’s annual contributions, donations from Zakat House, NGOs and diplomatic missions and revenues made by investing the solidarity fund’s money.
The new draft bill also excludes some 700,000 domestic helpers, spouses of Kuwaitis and their children, GCC nationals, members of the judiciary and the public prosecution, heads and members of diplomatic missions and their families provided Kuwaiti missions in their countries receive the same treatment, pilots, co-pilots, flight cabin crews and workers on government contracts from the number of expats to be determined by the government.
Foreigners account for nearly 3.4 million of Kuwait’s 4.8 million people. In July the National Assembly’s Human Resources committee said it was reviewing several proposals submitted by MPs, including one calling to impose quotas for each expat community in the country. Referring to the skewed population structure of the country, Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Khaled Al Sabah said during a recent media briefing that redressing this imbalance would be challenging and that ideally he would like the number of foreign workers to drop from the current 70 percent of the population to 30 percent. However, this would entail deporting around 2.5 million expat workers.
The government is said to have drawn up a proposal to gradually replace as many as 160,000 expat jobs in the public sector with Kuwaitis. The plan also states that as many as 370,000 expats who have a “negative impact” on the country or are illegal residents can be cut by taking short-term measures. The government is also proposing to reduce the number of “marginal” laborers by 25 percent by adopting a ‘smart recruitment’” system. The plan however did not specify any time frame for implementing the law.
Previous attempts by the authorities to regulate and reduce the number of expatriates in the country have been less than successful. However, this time around, there appears to be a consensus within the government and the legislature to remedy the country’s distorted demographic structure. This view has gained additional traction in recent months in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and low oil price scenario that has resulted in increased economic and social pressures on Kuwait.
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