Kuwait’s draft law on expats may lead to ouster of 8 lakh Indians

The Kuwait government’s draft law to reduce the number of expat Indians to 15 per cent of the population may lead to the ousting of over 8 lakh Indians, reported Gulf News.

The draft expat quota bill approved by the legal and legislative committee of Kuwait National Assembly will be transferred to the respective committee for a comprehensive plan to be created, the report said.

While expats constitute 3 million of the total population of 4.3 million in Kuwait, the Indian community is the largest with a population of 1.45 million expats.

Amid a growing chorus to cut down on the expat population, Kuwait’s prime minister Sheikh Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah had recently proposed to reduce the number of expats from 70 per cent to 30 per cent of the population.

The decision also comes amid concerns over expats, mostly migrant workers, contributing to a majority of Kuwait’s COVID-19 cases.

A chunk of the expats in Kuwait are from the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

While India has not commented on the development so far, reports said the Indian embassy is closely following the development pertaining to the proposed legislation.

Kuwait so far has reported more than 49,000 cases of COVID-19.