Foreigners account for nearly 3.4 million of Kuwait’s 4.8 million people, and “we have a future challenge to redress this imbalance,” Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah said. Kuwait Doesn’t Want To Be An Expat-Majority Nation Anymore.
In Kuwait, 650,000 expatriates are employed as domestic workers.Kuwait’s Prime Minister has said the country’s expatriate population should be more than halved to 30% of the total, as the coronavirus pandemic and a slump in oil prices send shudders through Gulf economies.Foreigners account for nearly 3.4 million of Kuwait’s 4.8 million people, and “we have a future challenge to redress this imbalance,” Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah told the top editors of local newspapers on Wednesday, according to an official statement carried by state-run KUNA.
Must Read: Emirates Announces To Commence Outbound Flights From Pakistan
The comments are a rare public acknowledgement by the executive of one of Kuwait’s most contentious issues, and follow a renewed push by lawmakers to reduce the number of overseas workers, particularly unskilled labour, with the economy under intense strain. MPs are proposing a quota system as well as replacing all expatriate government employees, estimated at 100,000, with Kuwaitis.
Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah is a Kuwaiti diplomat and politician, who had been serving in different ministerial posts from 2006 until his appointment as Prime Minister of Kuwait in 2019. In addition, he is a senior member of the ruling family of Kuwait, the Sabah family.
