Expat bill may force over 8 lakh Indians out of Kuwait

Kuwait City: With rising coronavirus cases causing severe economic strain on countries, a draft expat quota bill in Kuwait may force 800,000 Indians out of the Gulf state, media report said.

The legal and legislative committee of Kuwait’s National Assembly has approved the draft expat quota bill, according to which Indians should not exceed 15% of the population

The Indian community constitutes the largest expat community in Kuwait, totaling 1.45 million.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a spike in anti-expat rhetoric as lawmakers and governmental officials call for reducing the number of foreigners in Kuwait, the Gulf News report said.

Last month, Kuwait’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah, proposed decreasing the number of expats from 70 per cent to 30 per cent of the population.

The current population of Kuwait is 4.3 million, with Kuwaitis making up 1.3 million of the population, and expats accounting for 3 million.

According to the Indian embassy in Kuwait, there are about 28,000 Indians working for the Kuwaiti Government in various jobs like nurses, engineers in national oil companies and a few as scientists.

The majority of Indians (5.23 Lakh) are deployed in private sectors. In addition, there are about 1.16 lakh dependents. Out of these, there are about 60,000 Indian students studying in 23 Indian schools in the country.

Image courtesy of Wikipedi

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