‘Interior’ implemented many decisions
MGRP to hike appointment of nationals on govt contracts
KUWAIT CITY, May 16: The Ministry of Interior has been exerting a lot of efforts to address the imbalance in the demographic structure but so far very little has been achieved, reports Al-Rai daily quoting knowledgeable security sources.
The same sources said much rests with the parliamentarians to enact legislation to give meaning to the recommendations of the ministry especially with relation to the increase in residence fees and punishment for those who incite domestic workers to flee the homes of their sponsors.
The sources said the Ministry of Interior, on its own has implemented many decisions such as intensifying security campaigns against violators of residence law, linking the validity of residence permit to the validity of passport, reducing the number of visit visas and household work permits for citizens and expatriates to 3 instead of 5.
The source added the minister of interior also gave grace period to expatriates to leave the country without paying fines which has helped approximately 20,000 residence law violators.
The sources revealed the ministry has recommended the increase in residence fees of up to 100 percent, and increasing the penalty for violators of residence law to 4 dinars a day and a maximum of one thousand dinars and increase the salary cap to 450 dinars for sponsors of dependents.
The sources said all these recommendations require the approval of the legislature. The sources affirmed another area where legislation is required is punishment for those who incite domestic workers to leave the homes of their sponsors as it happened recently in the case of Filipino house service workers.
Meanwhile, Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) is working on increasing the appointment of national labor on governmental contracts, as the number of expatriates on these contracts has reached 433,386 while only 13,451 of such workers are Kuwaitis, which is about three percent of the total number of employees, reports Al-Rai daily.
MGRP has prepared a plan for employing Kuwaitis on governmental contracts including allotting a mechanism for central employment on contracts, issuing legislations to carry out central employment and establishing National Manpower Development Center, which is expected to have a capacity of 36,301 trainees representing 60 percent of the total targeted employment.
Meanwhile, Public Manpower Authority has submitted a report to the Parliament’s Replacement Committee, as per which the number of expatriate employees in the domestic sector is 677,622 of ten different nationalities. It is topped by Indians with 291,572 domestic workers, followed by the Philippines with 163,631, Bangladesh with 81,170 and Sri Lanka with 67,451.
MP Khalil Al-Saleh revealed about some decisions that Ministry of Interior is in the process of preparing and issuing, reports Al-Rai daily.
These ministerial decisions include granting Domestic Labor Department of the ministry the right to arrest domestic workers with visa of article No. 20 in commercial stores and fake recruitment agencies, approving the use of new technologies by companies in the field of security, and reducing the number of expatriate workers in governmental bodies to 25 percent.