Plight of Indian Migrant Workers in Kuwait

The apathy of Indian migrant workers continues, not just in India but in other parts of the world as well. In the USA, the Trump administration put restrictions on H1B visa, the most after visa by Indian IT professionals to shield the significant threat to employment opportunities for Americans. Likewise, Kuwait recently passed a draft expat quota bill to significantly reduce the number of foreign workers in Kuwait, who constitute a staggering 70% of the country’s population of four million and bring down this number to 30%. This accounts for a total of 800,000 Indians who could be affected and be forced to leave the Gulf country. Around the world the anti-expat rhetoric has spiked since the Covid-19 pandemic mostly to protect employment opportunities for the local populations in the wake of record unemployment caused by falling economies worldwide

Indians form the largest expat community in Kuwait followed by Egyptians. Kuwaitis just make up 1.3 million of the total population in the country. The bill comes in the wake of the Covid pandemic and a decline in global crude oil prices, which has severely impacted its oil-dependent economy.

According to the bill, Indians should not exceed 15% of the total population in Kuwait. Currently, the bill has been cleared by the legal and legislative committee of the national assembly of Kuwait, but it needs the government’s approval to become a law. Such localization policies have been brought by many Gulf States but has never been successful in reducing the size of expatriate workers in the GCC countries, most of whom depend highly on skilled Indian labor for their economic development. The Indian government says it has already initiated discussions with Kuwait about the bill.

Originally posted on www.kpalegal.com on 14th Sep. 2020