Egyptian expats wary as Kuwaiti MPs propose bill to reduce foreign workers
As Kuwait’s parliament gears up to discuss a draft law that, if enacted, would reduce the number of foreign workers, Egyptians in the small Gulf country fear they will have to go back to Egypt where the economy has been badly hit by the coronavirus crisis.
Egyptian expatriates in Kuwait are feeling wary after Kuwait's parliament proposed a draft law that would reduce the number of foreign workers in order to preserve the demographics of the country. Kuwaiti citizens are currently a minority in their country.
The proposal was presented by parliament member Badr al-Mulla, who said in televised remarks on May 27 that the draft law not only addresses how Kuwaiti citizens feel about being a minority in their own country, but it also adjusts the percentage of nationalities so that each nationality does not exceed a certain percentage as determined by the proposed law.
Mulla’s proposal set the percentage of nationalities compared to the number of Kuwaiti citizens so that the percentage of Egyptians stands at 10% of the overall Kuwaiti population.
Egypt has the second highest number of expatriate workers in Kuwait at 510,000, or 20.8% of the total expatriate workforce in the country and about 17.9% of the total employment in Kuwait, according to statistics released by Alshall Consulting Company.
