Kuwait passes law to cut expat population

The Kuwaiti Parliament passed "Demographic Imbalance Bill" on Friday to slash expat population from 70 to 30 percent.
The bill proposes Bangladeshis must not exceed three percent of Kuwait's total populace, which now stands at about 48 lakh.
The new law may force around two lakh Bangladeshi migrant workers out of the Gulf country. However, Kuwait government will take a decision about the fate of Bangladesh's expats within a couple of days as the parliamentary committee is working on the draft law, according to Kuwaiti media reports.
Currently, around 3.5 lakh Bangladeshis are employed in different sectors of the   oil-rich country. Once the bill becomes a law, only about 1.5 lakh Bangladeshis will be allowed to stay there.
 "The Human Resources Development Committee held a meeting to review and determine the National assembly's decision to refer the demographic regulation law to the Legislative Committee to study the drafting of the articles of the law after its amendment," Arab Times writes on Friday.
"The government sources confirmed its ambitious plan, aiming to deport 70 per cent of expat workers from Kuwait. The sources reaffirmed the government's intention to end 160,000 jobs in the private sector and deport marginal labours and illiterate expats. The timeframe to rectify the demographic imbalance is five years." Arab Times said.
The bill came after several Kuwaiti MPs said the current ratio of Kuwaiti citizens and foreign workers created "a great imbalance in the country's demography". The bill, submitted by five MPs, calls for an expatriate quota system in Kuwait, one of the major sources of Bangladesh's remittance inflow.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly human resources committee said that a rapid reduction of expats could have a negative impact on the market's purchasing power, the labor market, especially private sector, and the real estate market and private education market, according to Kuwait Times.
Knowing the reality, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had sent Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen as a special envoy to Kuwait on October 4 to meet new Emir Sheikh Nawaf al Ahmad al Sabah. Emir told Momen that it would take time to decide the fate of Bangladeshi expats. Bangladeshi migrant workers sent more than $1.5 billion in remittance through authorised channels from Kuwait, which was the fourth highest in terms of remittance into Bangladesh, according to the website of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training.