Plans to only allow expats with ‘good’ GPA to work in Kuwait

MoI: Medical checkups must for returning maids • MP: Pay Kuwaiti housewives KD 300

KUWAIT: The manpower authority is planning to ban issuing permits to expats with university degrees entering Kuwait to work in the private sector unless they have a minimum of ‘good’ GPA, according to informed government sources. The government is currently taking several steps towards resolving Kuwait’s demographic imbalance and restructuring the local labor market, including plans to endorse and accredit expats’ degrees as a precondition to renewing their residency visas.

The sources said this step will help adjust demographic problems and make sure that only highly specialized and skilled people work in Kuwait. The sources said organizational decisions will be issued in the coming months to fight visa trafficking and prevent unqualified labor from coming to Kuwait.

Meanwhile, the interior ministry yesterday called on sponsors of maids from 41 Asian and African countries to make them undergo fresh medical tests any time they return from a visit to their home countries. The ministry said the regulations are based on new orders by the health ministry and urged all sponsors to take their maids for fresh medical tests after they return from vacations to their home countries. The new regulations apply to domestic helpers from India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and other nations. According to the latest statistics, around 650,000 domestic helpers, who mainly hail from the Indian Subcontinent, the Philippines and several African nations, work in Kuwait.

Separately, the National Assembly’s financial and economic affairs committee insisted yesterday that the early retirement law which was rejected by the government is in line with the constitution and will be sent to the Assembly for a second approval. The law was overwhelmingly passed by the Assembly in May despite government reservations, but the government rejected it and sent it back to the Assembly.

The Assembly can override the government rejection by passing the law again but with a two-thirds majority, which was not available in the previous term. However, under the Kuwait constitution, the Assembly can pass the same law with a simple majority if voting takes place in the next term. During the committee meetings to discuss the rejected law, Finance Minister Nayef AlHajraf told the panel that the law, which allows Kuwaiti male and female employees to seek early retirement, breached the constitution.

MP Majed Al-Mutairi yesterday submitted a proposal calling on the government to provide Kuwaiti housewives who do not work with a monthly assistance of KD 300. He said the assistance should be treated like the assistance paid to Kuwaitis who work in the private sector. This is not the first time that a Kuwaiti MP has made such a proposal. All previous suggestions never materialized.

Opposition MP Riyadh Al-Adasani said yesterday the Assembly has committed a legal violation while approving a KD 6.2 billion supplementary bill for defense purchases. He said the Assembly approved KD 3.2 billion to be included in the budget over the next 10 years, while the remaining KD 3 billion will be withdrawn from the state reserves, also over the next 10 years. Adasani said the two amounts should have been included in the budget for 10 years and no direct withdrawals should have been made from the state reserve fund.