MP presents proposal to ‘Kuwaitise’ all jobs, including advisers, in parliament

Cairo: A Kuwaiti member of parliament has presented a proposal to replace all foreign employees in the legislature with citizens as part of an employment policy dubbed “Kuwaitisation”, a local newspaper has reported.

MP Abdul Karim Al Kandari’s proposal calls for terminating contracts of expatriate advisers and other workers in the National Assembly and replacing them with Kuwaiti specialists through a job announcement based on “transparent” rules to be set by the parliament’s general secretariat and its committees, Al Rai said.

“The National Assembly debates draft laws to Kuwaitise public jobs at state agencies and apply the policy of replacing expatriates with citizens,” the paper quoted the lawmaker as saying in his proposal.

“As a faithful believer in the issue, the assembly should start with itself for the replacement and Kuwaitisation process to set an example for government agencies, which it monitors,” he added.

There were no specific figures about the number of foreigners working in the recently elected Kuwaiti parliament.

Foreigners make up nearly 3.4 million of Kuwait’s overall population of 4.6 million.

In recent months, there have been increasing calls in Kuwait for curbing foreigners’ employment along accusations that migrant workers have strained the country’s infrastructure facilities amid economic repercussions from COVID-19.