‘Bid to create job opportunities for Kuwaitis’
“Kuwait, after depending heavily on “low-cost” foreign workers from countries in the Middle East and Asia in particular, said the cashstrapped Kuwaiti government last month would not renew work permits for expatriates over the age of sixty, as of next January, especially those who do not hold university degree”, reports Al-Anba daily quoting the Arabian Business Newspaper. The company cited interviews with a number of workers in low-wage professions, including Egyptian citizen Marzouq Muhammad who told AFP that “after more than 45 years working as car washer in Kuwait to cover his living expenses, he will be forced to leave Kuwait at any time”.
Economic problems and the coronavirus stir anti-expatriate sentiments, and this 65-year-old man is among the tens of thousands of people who have to leave Kuwait, after the country had been hit hard by the oil prices crash this year. Kuwait, like other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, relies heavily on low-cost foreign labor, especially workers from the Middle East and Asia, as many of them arrive in their youth to take modest, unskilled jobs and professions that most citizens who prefer high-paying government positions avoid.
Source- Arab Times.
