Over 67,000 expats leave Kuwait in three months

Indians top list, followed by Egyptians

More than 67,809 expat workers have left Kuwait in the firstquarter of 2021, according to a new labour market report by the government.

Indians topped the list of expat workers leaving Kuwait with 21,341 Indians departing the country of whom 10,169 were domestic workers, followed by Egyptians, the second largest number of expatriates leaving Kuwait with 11,135 workers, Bangladeshis with 6,136 and Filipinos with 2,543 workers.

According to official figures, the total number of workers in the labour market was 1,536,033 in the private sector and 411,464 in public sector until the end of last March.

As for the domestic labour sector, the total number of workers was 651,265 until last March, a decrease of 17,398 compared to the statistics recorded at the end of last year.

Experts attributed the huge number of expats leaving the country to a nationalisation drive and retrenchments in the public sector along with business closures and production cuts in manufacturing during the pandemic, which left many expatriate workers jobless or facing extended layoffs without salaries.

A report on the labour market reckoned nearly 200,000 expatriates had left Kuwait in the one year since March 2020.

Age criterion

In addition, the Public Authority for Manpower’s (PAM) decision to stop renewing visas of expatriates over 60 years of age if they did not possess a university degree or diploma exacerbated the issue. As a result, Kuwait’s restaurant and hotel sector is reported to be suffering from a severe shortage of workers, including those in delivery services, Al Qabas newspaper said.