More than 1,600 expats sacked from Kuwait public sector jobs this year

Kuwait has sacked more than 1,600 expatriate employees this year – almost three times the number it dismissed throughout 2017.

The move was made in an attempt to reshuffle the country’s expatriate workforce and create more opportunities for locals in the public sector.

The Civil Service Commission announced that 1,629 expatriate workers were fired from government jobs this year, compared with 666 put out of jobs in 2017.

The government is reorganising its ageing foreign population, which is often accused of taking advantage of an inflated government payroll.

Safaa Al Hashem, a populist member of parliament, last year criticised some government sectors for having more than 40 consultants, saying they were “doing what exactly?”

Some members of parliament have also criticised Kuwait’s growing expatriate population, of which Egyptians comprise a quarter.

Most recently, some parliamentarians blamed non-Kuwaitis for the country’s traffic, suggesting the expatriates should be at least 40 years old before they received a licence.

Some politicians even suggested barring the issuance of driving licences to non-Kuwaitis.

“It requires a rethinking of the road structure and organisational principles, it has little to do with the expatriates,” said Faisal Al Atal, chairman of the Kuwait Society of Engineers.

This week, a panel set up by parliamentarians invited two cabinet ministers – the Minister of Social Affairs, Hind Al Sabeeh, and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Anas Al Saleh – to discuss speeding up the government’s commitment to replacing expatriates with Kuwaitis in the government sector.

According to the latest statistics, about 12,000 Kuwaitis are unemployed in a country that guarantees employment to all its citizens.

The population of Kuwait is about four million, of which only 1.3 million are Kuwaitis. In the public sector, Kuwaitis make up 76.1 per cent of the workforce.

This week, the Ministry of Education also announced 2,000 teaching jobs in public schools.

The move aims to reshuffle ageing teaching staff and to bring in new classroom methods to renovate Kuwait’s public education system.