Senior expats laid off at Kuwait municipality

Cairo: Kuwait’s municipal authorities have sacked several expatriates holding high jobs as part of government efforts to employ Kuwaitis, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper.

Director-General of the Kuwait Municipality Ahmad Al Manfuhi has terminated services of four foreign advisers at the legal affairs department, four legal researchers and two legal specialists, Al Rai reported, citing municipal sources.

Last week, Al Manfuhi terminated the services of 132 non-Kuwaiti employees in different municipal sectors under a phased plan to replace foreigners with Kuwaitis, Kuwaiti media reported.

Last month, Kuwaiti Minister of Municipality Rana Al Fares unveiled a three-phase plan to replace expatriates in municipal jobs with Kuwaitis. The first phase of the plan reportedly got underway on September, terminating

contracts of 33 per cent of expatriates after giving them discontinuation notices, media reports said.

The second phase, replacing 33 per cent others, will take effect on February 1 while the third targeting the remaining expatriates will go into effect on July 1, they added.

As part of the scheme, the minister ordered a halt to all procedures related to appointment of non-Kuwaitis or their transfer among municipal sectors.

Exempted from the plan are certain categories including foreign employees whose mothers are Kuwaitis; nationals of the Gulf Cooperation Council; regis-tered stateless Bidoons; services employees; and 50 per cent of funeral work-ers, the reports said.

Kuwait has recently stepped up efforts to redress its demographic imbalance and replace foreign workers with its citizens as part of an employment policy dubbed “Kuwaitisation”.

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 for-eigners’ employment along accusations that migrant workers have strained the country’s infrastructure facilities amid economic repercussions from COVID-19.