Kuwait cancels over 1.15 million visas of expats in 3 years

Kuwait: Over 1.15 million visas of expatriates was cancelled by Kuwait during the three years, untill the end of March 2023, local media reported.

The number of those who left the country between January 2022 and April 2023 reached 67,000, and 11,000 of them were issued “administrative deportation” decisions in the first quarter of this 2023.

In 2022, Kuwait has deported some 40,000 illegal expatriates, who violated residence and labour laws.

According to Arabic daily Al-Qabas, the year 2022 witnessed the cancellation of the residency of 56,279 expatriates.

The cancellation of these residences is due to many reasons, in addition to the desire of the residence owner to leave, and the issuance of deportation orders for violating the labor and residence laws.

The local labor market has recently seen the entry of large numbers of labor force, despite the closure that the market saw, which coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions on many sectors.

Official data stated that the year 2022 witnessed a significant recovery in the labor market, as 67,000 workers entered the country for the first time, 64 percent of whom were domestic workers.

In 2021, 227,000 expatriates left the country, with around 160,000 leaving without compensation, most of whom worked in the private and family sector as domestic workers.

The number of domestic workers in Kuwait is about 750,000 workers, who account for about 22 per cent of the total expatriate workforce, which amounts to a total of 3.4 million people.