Kuwait to replace foreign municipal workers
Targeted expats are engineers, accountants, legal advisers and administrative workers
Cairo: Kuwait is set to terminate the services of expatriates holding university degrees who are doing municipal jobs within days, Kuwait media reports said.
As part of government efforts to provide jobs for Kuwaiti citizens, the Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Noura Al Mashaan directed terminating the services of all university degree-holding expats at the municipality’s executive body as well as the services of legal advisers at affiliated directorates, Al Rai newspaper said.
The report explained that the directive applies to foreign workers holding degrees in law, engineering, accounting and others doing administrative jobs.
The directive issued Monday also stipulated that a ministerial decree will be made to terminate the services of expat legal advisers within three days, the paper said.
“The directive comes due to availability of national cadres who are able to do this work and undertake assignments well,” Al Mashaan was quoted as saying.
There were no immediate official figures on the number of the affected ex-pats.
In recent years, Kuwait has intensified efforts to create jobs for its citizens, replace foreign employees, and address the demographic imbalance in the country.
Earlier this year, a Kuwaiti media report disclosed that 1,211 jobs in Kuwait’s oil sector are to be filled by Kuwaitis in 2024.
An employment policy for Kuwaitis, dubbed “Kuwaitisation” entails 1,211 jobs in the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and its subsidiaries, Al Anba newspaper reported.
Kuwait boasts a public sector workforce of around 483,200, with foreigners making up 23% of this total – the highest proportion among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Foreigners currently constitute around 3.3 million of Kuwait’s 4.8 million population.
Kuwait has recently toughened measures against illegal foreign residents and warned that any expatriate covering up an unlawful resident will be deported too.