Kuwaiti Lawmakers Getting Serious Over Slashing Expat Numbers

Kuwaiti lawmakers are upgrading their attack on the expatriate community with a proposal for a dedicated national committee to regulate expat numbers.

Four members of the Kuwaiti parliament have put together a proposal to form a national committee with the brief of administrating and regulating the demography of the emirate. Unsurprisingly entitled the ‘National Committee to Regulate and Administer Kuwait’s Demography’, the committee’s brief would be to prevent an ‘excessive number of expatriates’ from threatening the state’s identity. According to sources preferring to remain anonymous at the present time, the committee’s brief would be to set special policies to change the emirate’s current demographic status.

The proposal states the committee’s responsibility as studying the state’s demography, security, developmental requirements and economy with the goal a reduction in expat numbers to a maximum of 60 per cent over the next decade. At the present time, expats dominate the population, making up 70 per cent of all residents. In addition, the committee should set new, ongoing limits for expats every five years, with a 40 per cent limit considered most suitable.

If the proposal is passed, the appointed committee would contain senior representatives from all government offices, headed up by the Minister of State for Economic Affairs. Other members would be drawn from the ministries of education, health, manpower, planning and development, justice and commerce and industry as well as from the Civil Service Commission, the Statistics Bureau and the private sector. Expats living and working in Kuwait are used to such parliamentary calls for slashing their numbers, but the frequency of such bills is increasing and is causing concern within the international community.