8 Lakh Indians may be forced to leave Kuwait soon: Reports
Kuwait approves draft expat quota bill
DUBAI: According to media reports, around 8 lakh Indians could be forced to leave Kuwait after a parliamentary committee approved a draft expat quota bill seeking to gradually slash the number of foreign workers in the Gulf country. The National Assembly’s legal and legislative committee has determined that the expat quota bill is constitutional. According to the bill, Indians should not exceed 15 per cent of Kuwait’s population. This could result in 800,000 Indians leaving Kuwait, as the Indian community constitutes the largest expat community in the country, totalling 1.45 million, the Gulf News reported, citing a leading Kuwaiti newspaper.
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.
Last month, Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah proposed reducing the number of expats from 70 per cent to 30 per cent of the population, the report said. An official in the Indian embassy in Kuwait said that the Kuwait government is yet to inform the embassy about any such measure being taken to drastically reduce the number of Indians in the country. “Imagine the large number of drivers, maids, nurses, and doctors that are here. They are needed and cannot just be removed without an alternative. It is just not practical,” he said, adding that most of the job losses are happening in the government sector. 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. Kuwait is a top source of remittances for India. In 2018, India received nearly $4.8 billion from Kuwait as remittances.