Manama: Kuwait has decided not to renew work and residency permits for expats aged 60 years, media reported on Saturday.
The decision will be implemented from January 1, Kuwait newspaper Al Anba reported quoting official sources.
According to reports, the Public Authority of Manpower is working on a mechanism to implement the decision. The mechanism will find out those covered by the ban based on the expiry dates of their residency permits.
The ‘departure decision’ takes effect as of the start of January 1, the official was quoted as saying by the daily. He added that the Manpower Authority will not renew the work permit and as a result, the work contract will end automatically.
The General Department of Residency Affairs will set the deadline for those covered by the ban to leave Kuwait. They may be allowed from one to three months as a deadline, according to the official.
If the residence permit is not renewed, they will have to leave the country.
The report does not specify whether the decision will be implemented in the public or private sectors.
The new restriction comes as authorities in Kuwaiti continue to implement various rules aimed at reducing the number of expats in the country.
In August this year, Kuwait had decided to impose restrictions on transferring dependent visas to work visas in the private sector and banned transferring government workers to the private sector.
In addition, the government announced that it would dismiss 50 percent of expats working in the public sector. According to a report, there are 120,000 expats working in the public sector until December 2019. As part of a Kuwaitisation or localization of jobs around 50,000 expats in the public sectors were laid off in 2018.
Authorities also announced recently that work permits for expats aged over 60 without a university degree will no longer be issued.
The new rules were perceived as part of the overall government plan to cut the number of expats in the country.
