Kuwait to cut 3,100 foreign staff in public sector this fiscal year

Kuwait is set to make more than 3,100 foreign public sector staff redundant during the current fiscal year, according to reports.

The plans follow instructions from the finance ministry in January for ministries and departments to prepare lists of foreign employees to be cut.

Read: Kuwait ministries told to begin purge of foreign staff

Kuwait Times cited sources as confirming 48 government departments have now prepared their lists for the current fiscal year from April to March 2019.

A total of 3,108 expats are expected to be terminated from July, according to the publication.

Under the government’s wider plans, a number of public sector job categories are to be occupied solely by Kuwaitis by 2022.

The head of the National Assembly’s committee for the replacement of expatriates in the public sector, MP Khalil Al-Saleh, said last month that lawmakers wanted the roughly 80,000 foreign workers in government roles replaced by citizens over the next five years.

Read: Kuwait committee wants 80,000 foreign staff replaced in public sector by 2023

Kuwait Times said there are 256,048 citizens employer in government roles compared to 78,439 foreigners.

Of the latter, 31,362 work in the education sector, 34,789 in the healthcare sector and 2,931 in the Awqaf ministries.

Kuwait has had a policy of replacing expats in government jobs since 1997.

In 2007 the previous requirement to replace 10 per cent of foreign employees per year was increased to 15 per cent.