Kuwait is going to Expel 8 Lakh (0.8 million) Indian workers according to New Bill on Foreign workers. The anti-expat rhetoric has spiked since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic with lawmakers and government officials call for reducing the number of foreigners in Kuwait.
8 lakh (0.8 million) Indians living in Kuwait may be forced to leave the country according to the draft expatriate quota bill which states Indians should not exceed 15 per cent of the country’s population.
The legal and legislative committee of Kuwait’s National Assembly (Parliament) has approved a draft expat quota bill which could result in eight lakh Indians leaving the country, Hindustan Times Reported on Monday.
According to the committee, the draft bill is constitutional and seeks to limit the number of Indians to 15 per cent of the population. It will now be transferred to the respective committee so that a comprehensive plan is created.
The move comes a month after Kuwait’s prime minister had said that the country’s expatriate population should be reduced from 70 to 30 per cent of the total.
“We have a future challenge to redress this imbalance,” Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah told a local media publication, and the statement was released by state-run Kuwait News Agency or KUNA.
Foreigners account for 3.4 million of Kuwait’s 4.8 million population, according to government data cited by local news outlets.
Gulf News cited local media reports to say that the new bill could see eight lakh Indians leaving Kuwait, “as the Indian community constitutes the largest expat community in Kuwait, totalling 1.45 million”.