Visa transfer made easy for expats hired by fake firms in Kuwait

Dubai: Kuwait’s Public Authority for Manpower has announced that expat workers whose companies have been closed or those recruited for firms that do not exist can now get their residency visas transferred after due procedures, local media reported.

According to sources, the new decision will benefit hundreds of people who have been deceived by companies and whose files were closed after they entered the country, as it was not their fault.

Bashayer Al Mutairi, Data Recording Monitor at the Inspection Department of the Manpower Authority, said that the authority gives the worker who has been brought to Kuwait on a visa of a company that is either closed or does not exist, a facility to transfer their residency and initiate legal procedures against non-compliant employers, Al Qabas newspaper reported.

Al Mutairi called on employers to update their data and ensure that their workers do not work for other companies to avoid violations.

In recent months, Kuwait has sought to expand recruitment of overseas domestic labour as coronavirus-related curbs have been largely eased.

Kuwait seeks to redress its demographic imbalance amid fallout from the COVID-19.

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 the pandemic.