Economic pain of pandemic shatters expats’ Gulf dream
THOUSANDS HEAD HOME AMID LAYOFFS AND PAY CUTS
After working for more than 15 years as a legal adviser in a private firm in Kuwait, Egyptian Hassan Ebrahim has recently returned home. “I had no choice after a salary cut of up to 40 per cent,” said the 58-year-old father of four. “The virus is radically impacting expats in the Gulf.”
Ebrahim is among tens of thousands of foreign workers who have left permanently as some GCC states revive plans to replace foreigners with nationals in the labour market.
As many as 11,921 expats left Kuwait, mainly for Egypt and India, in just two days this week. Over 7,300 Filipinos from the UAE have flown home since April.
Foreigners make up the majority of the population in the GCC countries mainly in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE, according to the
International Labour Organisation (ILO). In Saudi Arabia, the biggest Gulf country, foreigners account for about 10.5 million of the 34.8 million population. Expats in GCC states account for over 10 per cent of all migrants globally.
Clamour for repatriation
Over the past couple of months, tens of thousands of Gulf expat workers have left or applied for repatriation. The majority of returnees are Indians, Pakistanis, Egyptians and Filipinos, who together form the largest foreign communities in the region.
The expat exodus could result in a fall of around 13 per cent in employment in the Gulf, according to research by Oxford Economics. The drop could include the loss of nearly 1.7 million jobs in Saudi Arabia, the report said.
“Dependence on expat workers in vulnerable sectors means the burden of job losses will fall on the expat population,” Scott Livermore, chief economist at Oxford Economics Middle East, said. “Combined with visas depending on employment and lack of a social safety net, an expat exodus is likely as travel restrictions are eased. This could result in the population declining by between 4 per cent in Saudi Arabia and Oman, and around 10 per cent in Qatar,” he added.
As many as 1.2 million foreign workers could leave Saudi Arabia this year, according to a report by Jadwa Investment Company.
Expats working in hospitality, food services, administrative and support activities, travel agencies, security and building services, will be among those to lose jobs, the report predicts.
From Kuwait, Qatar to Bahrain, there have been reports of layoffs, mainly among expats.
Kuwait said this month it would no longer employ expatriates in its oil sector.
Last month, lawmakers tabled a draft bill suggesting a quota system for employing foreigners as a way to redress the demographic imbalance.
According to the bill, the number of Indian workers should not exceed 15 per cent of the Kuwaiti population while that of Egyptians should stand at a maximum 10 per cent.
Mass layoffs
In Qatar, where expats account for 2.3 million of the 2.7 million population, thousands of labourers are jobless, with some forced to beg for food.
More than half of Bahrain’s population of 1.7 million are foreigners. The General Federation for Bahrain’s Trade Unions warned this week that “companies may embark on a wave of mass layoffs after the end of the support period”