Kuwait allows transfer of government contract workers
Specific conditions must be met for mobility due to take effect from November 3
Cairo: Starting November 3, expatriates hired from abroad to work at government projects in Kuwait will be able to transfer their labour permits, but after complying with a set of conditions.
Kuwait’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence and Interior Fahd Al Yousuf has issued a decree allowing the transfer of workers, who are recruited with labour permits for the government contract and projects sector, to work outside this sector, Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported.
The decree has specified five conditions that must be met for this transfer.
They include the expiry of the government contract or the end of the project; submitting a report to the Public Authority of Manpower issued by the contracting government agency or the owner of the project stating that it has ended and that the workers are no longer needed; and the lapse of one year after the recruitment of the workers.
The two other conditions are an approval from the employer on whom the worker is registered; and paying an extra fee of KD350.
In another step for labour mobility, Kuwait earlier this year announced a grace period, allowing domestic workers to transfer from Visa 20 (domestic sector) to Visa 18 (private sector). The transfer opened on July 14 and ended on September 12.
As a result, around 55,000 domestic workers have joined the private sector, capitalising on the transfer aimed to offset a shortage in house labourers.
During that period, the Interior Ministry’s Residency Affairs had handled 55,000 applications for transferring from the domestic sector to the private sector, Al Rai reported last month, quoting security sources.
The transfers are set to largely contribute to reducing the shortage in house workers at the Kuwaiti market, the sources added.
Kuwait, a country of 4.9 million people mostly foreigners, has recently suffered a shortage of domestic workers partially due to a ban on labourers from the Philippines.
In June, Kuwait lifted a visa ban on domestic workers from the Philippines imposed more than a year ago amid a labour dispute. Kuwait said the ban lifting came after reaching an agreement in talks to resolve the row.