69% of Kuwait's 3.8 million population is made up of expatriates! Recently the Kuwait ministry of interior announced its target to deport 100,000 expats annually for the next 10 years. There has been a recent deportation campaign which has seen many (exact numbers appear to differ across all sources, but it's is said to be in the thousands ) expats deported! Expats are being deported for any violation of the law- traffic offences, unmarried couples sharing accommodation, and incorrect visa or residency papers. I have seen footage of men in hoods raiding apartment blocks and "gathering" people for deportation- a little mental!
The government has stopped issuing work/commercial visa's and rumour has it that when residencies run out many may not be renewed with the aim of filling many expat positions with Kuwaiti citizens.
The Kuwait ministry of interior have stated that this decision comes as they fear the number of expats is causing a demographic imbalance. For me it seems to come at an odd time as Kuwait has a 30billion dinars development plan which includes construction of a new airport terminal, hospitals and a metro system, I cannot imagine Kuwaiti citizens performing this manual labour, 94% of Kuwaiti nationals are employed within governmental positions. Rumour has it by deporting expats costs will be cut however a kuwaiti citizen will be paid a salary of up double that of an expat for the same position, most companies in fact have payment structure based on nationalities!
Recently the government has been heavily criticised for restricting visiting hours for foreigners to the afternoons only (except in the case of an emergency y).........
subsequently the atmosphere in Kuwait seems to be a little frosty for expats at the moment!
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