‘8,000 work permits issued for Egyptians each month in 2018’
Egyptian Statistical Authority issues report
KUWAIT CITY, Aug 13: Officials statistics show the number of Egyptians entering the country in 2018, has increased considerably – roughly 8,000 per month which works out to about 270 every day, reports Al-Rai daily.
The report issued by the Egyptian Statistical Authority revealed about 98,000 new work permits were issued for Egyptians to work in Kuwait during 2018, while 132,000 work permits during the same period were renewed.
The source said this puts Kuwait in second spot after Saudi Arabia which has issued 230 thousand work permits, including 221 thousand for men and about 9 thousand for women, which constitute about 22.1 percent of the total work permits in the Arab countries.
According to the report, a copy of which has been obtained by the daily, the number of permits issued by Kuwait to Egyptians with higher qualification was about 65 thousand, while permits issued for above intermediate certificates were about 11 thousand, and the 91 thousand for holders of intermediate, and about 63 thousand for less or no certificates at all.
These figures mean only 28 percent of the 230,000 people who have work permits or whose work permits have been renewed have a university degree, and the remaining (about three-quarters of the number) make between average, below or without.
The official report confirms that the recent figures are much higher than the previously announced, the
latest of which was published by Al-Rai on July 11, citing a statement from the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration, in Cairo, that it receives 5,000 applications every month from people wishing to work in Kuwait to check their contracts and the required documents until a visa is obtained in cooperation with the Embassy of Kuwait in Cairo.
MP Safa’a Al-Hashem described the matter as “catastrophic,” MP Mohammed Al-Dallal said the figures, if true, is evidence of a violation of the replacement policy.
Al-Hashem told the daily the report confirms the issuance of about 98 thousand new work permits for Egyptians to work in Kuwait during 2018, most of them without a university qualification, which in itself, she said, is a crime against the country and a disaster by all standards and a surprise of high caliber, and pours cold water on all data received from the Human Resources Development Committee on the replacement and reduction of the number of non-productive expatriate labor, and to find a solution to the demographics, especially
following the report issued by the Egyptian Statistical Department.
MP Dalal called on the concerned authorities to scrutinize the report to know whether these new or renewed permits are related to government functions, saying if it is true, means violation of the replacement policy established by the Civil Service Commission.
In his capacity as member of the Commission on Employment, Al-Dalal said he will ask the government a series of questions in this regard.