Kuwait to complete replacing foreigners in government jobs by August

Kuwait to complete replacing foreigners in government jobs by August

Cairo: A Kuwaiti plan to replace foreign employees in government jobs with citizens will be completed by next August, a local newspaper has reported. A related decision made by the Civil Service Commission, the country’s employment agency, will be completed by August in government institutions except those of teachers, doctors and service jobs, Al Anba said, citing close government sources. In September 2017, the commission issued the decision to different government agencies to gradually reduce their numbers of non-Kuwaiti employees and complete the citizens’ employment or what is dubbed as “Kuwaitisation” in five years. Foreigners account for nearly 3.5 million of Kuwait’s overall population of 4.6 million. In recent months, voices have raised in the Gulf country demanding limiting the employment of foreigners amid economic fallout from COVID-19. Kuwait has recently stepped up raids on illegal foreign residents after giving them repeated grace periods to modify their status. Around 18,000 foreigners were deported from Kuwait in various cases in 2021, according to the Interior Ministry's figures.