Kuwait: By the end of 2020, some 100,000 expatriates are expected to leave Kuwait as the government investigates fake businesses and takes strong action against illegal licensing, Al Qabas reported.
“In recent months, a security operation has intensified, resulting in the dismissal of 450 corporations for investigation and 300 files have been archived,” a source told Al Qabas.
The source added that the investigation revealed that about 100,000 employees are registered in those fake corporations and therefore do not paint for them. This forced them to pay huge sums of cash for an apartment and paint the perimeter of the company outdoors.
While many companies face security restrictions and illegal entry permits are confiscated, many expats are unemployed and cannot remain in Kuwait.
“Although the repression was long over, it’s a step in the right direction. However, many expats pay the value when they leave Kuwait unaware if they will return and, in the most case, without receiving their salary for months,” Nourah Al Sulaiman, Ensaniyat’s Assignment Manager, told Gulf News.
Ensaniyat is a youth-led initiative introduced in 2017 in Kuwait and Qatar as a component of the promotion of migrant-rights.org boxes. Ensaniyat aims to foster a long-term replacement in attitudes towards labour migration and migrants by raising awareness of the next generation of decision makers and employers.
During the investigation, it revealed that between 2018 and 2019, these fake corporations gained about 66 million Kuwaiti dinars by bringing approximately 30,000 employees and charging them about 1,500 Kuwaiti dinars according to the consistent obligation.
“The challenge is that migrant staff have undergone unclear recruitment and migration frameworks, leaving many surprised to note that the promised jobs do not exist and that the company they have dealt with has not been transparent,” Al Sulaiman said.
It is estimated that in April, 100,000 unlicensed holders resided in Kuwait.
In months, the factor of illegal licensees has attracted more attention due to points ranging from the economic effect of COVID-19 to the arrest of the Bangladeshi parliamentarian.
Mohammad Shahid Islam, the Bangladeshi mp, was charged in June with human trafficking, money laundering and corruption. It has been reported that 20,000 Bangladeshi officials have been transferred to Kuwait as part of the outsourcing and network cleaning companies, resulting in more than 50 million Kuwaiti dinars. Staff were charged around 2,000 Kuwaiti dinars through Islam in exchange for an apartment permit.
“This staff comes to Kuwait thinking they have a task ahead of them. But once they arrived, they discovered that there were no paintings or dwellings,” Al Sulaiman said.
The practice of illegal licensing has led many in Kuwait, from the demographic imbalance, where expats account for 70% of the population, to the Kafala system.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Kafala formula was created in the 1950s with the economic objective of offering transitional work. The other persons basically affected by the Kafala formula are migrant staff because their immigration prestige is legally linked to an employer or sponsor (Kafeel) for the duration of their contract. Two-thirds of Kuwait’s 4.3 citizens are migrant staff.
“What happens regularly is that sponsors bring staff into the country, even if they don’t want their services. So what they’re doing is telling the employee that they can stay in Kuwait, but they have to pay me every single month for the permit,” Al Sulaiman said. “Basically, they have to locate a task on their own and organize their own home. But they have to worry about returning the money to the sponsor.
In 2016, Maria Grazia Giammarianaro, the UN special rapporteur on human trafficking, suggested that Kuwait cancel the Kafala formula because it “creates a scenario that fosters abusive and exploitative industrial relations,” she said.
“Expats come to Kuwait thinking they will work in positions such as sales, nursing and marketing to realize that they serve as domestic employees or in underpaid jobs,” Al Sulaiman said. “It’s because of the lack of transparency of the recruitment agencies.”
Al Sulaiman added: “Then there is also the stigma that staff are illiterate and uneducated.”
While migrant staff suffered from the COVID-19 crisis, many expats running for personal corporations and corporations were also affected. Many others ran out of cash because they were affected by the no-work and non-remuneration policy implemented through maximum corporations, although this policy is considered illegal under Kuwaiti law.
Al Sulaiman spoke to many expats who were affected by politics.
A story he shared about a place to eat that he hadn’t paid his workers since April. Then, in July, one of the workers told him that they had begun to pay them the 10-day salary, plus another 30 Kuwaiti dinars.
“This happened because the place to eat was sold to another user and to replace the owner, you have to show all the documents to the Ministry of Social Affairs to prove that they were paying for them,” Al Sulaiman said.
Last month, between 150 and 200 workers from places to eat, running for a well-known Lebanese chain, held a protest alleging they had not been paid in the last 3 months, according to Arab Times.
Due to the economic effect of COVID-19, many expatriates are likely to leave Kuwait on their own, as many have lost their jobs or have not received their payment since the start of the pandemic.
“Many other people had not received their rights even before COVID-19, however, the pandemic simply exacerbated everything and broke away from what was happening,” Al Sulaiman said.
Although Kuwait Airport is closed to arrivals, limited flights had been in service since March for those departing Kuwait. Since 16 March, more than 158,000 expats have departed Kuwait out of a total of 993 flights.
In April, the Home Office introduced an amnesty program that allowed non-permit holders to leave the country on a sanction. The government also paid for his tickets.
“Many others ended up leaving Kuwait as part of the amnesty program and left without their salary, so others are indebted to the country’s hiring company, while others don’t have enough cash to rebuild their homes or their families,” Al said. Sulaiman said.
Between April and June, 26,000 non-permit holders left Kuwait as part of the amnesty programme.
“What happens when these other people return to a country that is already experiencing peak unemployment? How are they going to make money?” says Al Sulaiman.
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