The number of expatriates in the country has decreased to 2,520,301 in 2021 from around 2,891,255 in 2018, reports Al-Qabas daily. According to an official statistics issued by the Central Statistical Bureau recently, the number of expatriates who obtained work permits in the government decreased during the aforementioned period by about 11,000. It was 107,657 in 2018, and decreased to 96,800 in 2021. This decrease can be attributed to the implementation of the Kuwaitization policy, which was initiated by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in 2017, amid expectations that the number will decrease to less than that as the policy continues.
The number of domestic workers decreased by about 115,700 workers to reach about 591,368 in 2021 from more than 707,000 in 2018. The decline in the numbers is due to the crisis related to shortage of domestic workers that the country witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the obstacles in the policy of recruitment.
The decline also affected the number of expatriates working in the private sector, as it declined to about 1,249,000 in 2021 from 1,531,000 in 2018. Regarding the residency violators, the statistics revealed that the total number of these violators increased by about 51,000 during the period from 2018 to 2021. It reached 151,690 violators in 2021 from up to 100,560 violators in 2018.
The statistics showed that the largest percentage of residency violators is the holders of the domestic worker residency at a rate of approximately 48.5 percent of the total number of residency violators in 2021, followed by workers in the private sector at approximately 23.5 percent, then the temporary residency holders at approximately 21 percent.
Also, the number of residence permits under article No 23 (residency for study) reached 508 in 2021, compared to about 870 in 2018. Following the implementation of the decision not to renew work permits for expatriate holders of secondary school certificates or less who have reached the age of 60 years, the number of “free activity” residencies to 601 in 2021 from 360 in 2018.
The decision had prompted some of them to switch to the establishment of “free activity” because its conditions apply to most of them. Women constituted a third of those obtaining residency permits in the country in 2021, at 31 percent, compared to 69 percent of men. The total number of canceled residencies in 2021 reached about 59,000, mostly for the following residency categories: – 19,000 temporary residencies, – 6,380 residencies in the government sector, – 16,853 residencies in the private sector, – 5,533 residencies of domestic workers, and – 11,136 residencies of those joining their families./Arab Times
