EXPAT QUOTA BILL APPROVED IN KUWAIT

8 LAKH INDIANS MAYBE COMPULSORY TO QUIT AFTER EXPAT QUOTA BILL APPROVED

ACCORDING TO THE BILL INFORMATION INDIANS SHOULD NOT EXCEED 15% OF GULF COUNTRY'S POPULATION

Approximately 8 lakh Indians could be required to leave Kuwait after a parliamentary committee accepted a draft Expat quota Bill seeking to gradually tear the number of foreign workers in the Gulf country, according to media reports. The National Assembly's legal and legislative committee has set on that the Expat quota Bill is constitutional. According to Bill, Indians should not exceed 15 percent of Kuwait's population. This could result in 800,000 Indians leaving Kuwait, as the Indian community constitutes the largest expect community in the country, totaling 1.45 million. The current population of Kuwait is 4.3 million, with expects accounting for around 3 million. Last month, Kuwait's Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah proposed reducing the number of experts from 70 percent to 30 percent of the population. Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem told that he and a group of lawmakers will submit to the Assembly a comprehensive draft law calling for a gradual reduction of expects in Kuwait. Kuwait has a real problem in its population structure, in which 70 percent are Expects, the speaker said, adding that what is more serious is that 1.3 million of the 3.35 million Expects are either illiterate or can merely read and write. The Speaker said the draft law they intend to file will propose to impose a cap on the number of experts, whose numbers must decrease gradually by stating that this year Expats will be 70 percent, upcoming year 65 percent, and so on. The Expat quota Bill will now be named to the worried committee for consideration. It states that the Indian expatriate community should not exceed 15 percent of the national population, which means around 800,000 of them might be required to leave Kuwait. According to the Indian embassy in Kuwait, there are approximately 28,000 Indians employed for the Kuwaiti government in various occupations like nurses, engineers in national oil companies, and a few as scientists. The majority of Indians are deployed in private sectors. Kuwait is a topmost source of remittances for India. In 2018, India collected nearly $4.8 billion from Kuwait as payment.