70% of Expats in Kuwait’s Private Sector Are Unqualified

Seventy percent of expatriate workers in the private sector are not qualified, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and State Minister for Economic Affairs Hind Al-Sabeeh said.

Workers who make up this percentage do not have intermediate or university degrees, the minister explained, adding that they need to be “filtered” through a mechanism that assesses the actual need for their services.

Speaking to reporters during a reception for Eid Al-Adha well-wishers yesterday, Sabeeh said that the Public Authority for Manpower inspected several companies around Kuwait during the holiday, and detected a ‘large number’ of violations, adding that proper legal procedures will be taken in that regard.

Nearly 60 percent of expatriates working in the private sector in Kuwait have an intermediate degree or lawyer, according to statistics released by the Labor Market Information System of the Central Statistical Bureau as of the end of March 2018. Meanwhile, less than 11 percent of expatriates in the private sector have university degrees.

Sabeeh also mentioned that the Supreme Committee for Demographic Structure is set to meet soon and make ‘important decisions’ in order to help address the demographic imbalance in Kuwait by targeting visa trafficking. Separately, Acting Director General of the Public Authority for Manpower Abdullah Al-Mutoutah said inspections on roaming laborers and violating butchers resulted in the arrest of 112 roaming laborers.

Separately, Director of the Central Inspection Department at the Public Authority for Manpower Mohammad Al-Ansari said the authority succeeded in suspending the files of all violating farms through field tours by the department during the past two years. He said that the authority received a letter from the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources not to renew files of farms that obstruct the path of the railway project. He said there will be a new mechanism to monitor workers allocated to the farms by moving the authority to the need estimation department. He said the department carries out periodic inspections on companies of the private and oil sectors to make sure they are in compliance with law 6/2010.

Read the full article by Meshaal Al-Enezi and A Saleh on AlBawaba, August 27 2018.