21 August 2017
Age limit, 'iqama' link denied

KUWAIT CITY: Addressing the imbalance in the demographics of Kuwait is a top priority for the Higher Committee for Adjustment of Demographics, which was formed by the Council of Ministers and is chaired by the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and State Minister for Economic Affairs Hind Al-Sabeeh with the aim of dealing with the skewed demographic structure and composition quoting official sources.

They affirmed that new executive decisions will be issued very soon to implement the recommendations of the committee with the aim of addressing the current imbalance in the population structure and achieving some balance.

In response to a question about renewing the residency of expatriates for a certain number of years, the sources replied, “There is no link between renewal of residencies and the number of years of residency. This means there is no condition for renewal of residency for those who have residency in the country for a certain number of years. However, the renewal will be linked to other controlling factors”.

They explained that the new decisions will mainly deal with marginal and unqualified workers. Some of the decisions that were put in place include limited renewal of residency for illiterate marginal workers above the age of 65 years in order to reduce their numbers particularly for areas such as plumbing and the like which are not required in the country.

Factors
The factors governing the recommendations of the committee are the ratio of Kuwaitis to expatriates, academic qualifications, nature of work, gender and social status. The Higher Committee for the Adjustment of Demographics comprises of representatives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance, as well as representatives of the General Secretariat for Planning, the Central Statistical Bureau, Manpower and Government Restructuring Program, Public Authority for Manpower and Public Authority for Civil Information.

Meanwhile, the Central System for Remedying the Status of Illegal Residents (CSRSIR) is planning to summon old Bedoun employees of the oil sector, a number of Bedoun residents who are registered in the 1965 census and a number of Bedoun military men who served for more than 30 years in order to update their data so that they can be included in the naturalization list quoting informed sources.

They explained that CSRSIR will also summon those who hold IDs and documents of countries of their origin and will ask them to amend their status. Those who refuse to do so will be referred to the Public Prosecution on charges of forgery. Those who accept will be granted some privileges such residency under Article 24, which means self-sponsoring, free education and free medical treatment. The sources indicated about instructions to speed up completion of this file in order to naturalize the deserving Bedoun residents.

© Arab Times 2017