KUWAIT CITY, Jan 7: The Council of Ministers has instructed the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) and other concerned parties to expedite the steps aimed at adjusting the demographics and purifying the labor market of random employment in order to ensure that work permits are not issued to anyone except companies with real activity on the ground, reports Al-Qabas daily. Also, based on a series of measures implemented by PAM to curb visa trading and the entry of marginal workers into Kuwait, the year 2022 ended with many changes in the local labor market, as it witnessed the closure of 3,000 fake companies, and the referral of 800 files to the Public Prosecution for investigations into suspicions of corruption and irregularities.

A report by PAM stated that the year 2022 also included the registration of 14,963 citizens in the automated registration system for job seekers, and 37 percent want to work in the private sector. Despite the state opening the door to receiving workers in all sectors after the closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic workers were the highest number compared to the rest of the fields of work. The year 2022 ended with the door closed on the recruitment of Egyptian workers until further notice due to the abuses of recruitment agencies and the lack of an understanding between PAM and its Egyptian counterpart regarding the reopening of recruitment.

By the end of 2022, the labor market regulations registered about 2.2 million non-Kuwaiti workers, corresponding to 511,000 citizens, only 14 percent of whom are in the private sector, according to the latest report. Domestic workers in the local market accounted for 30 percent of the total employees in the country, and four percent in the government sector, while the rest of the employees are distributed in the private sector in various fields including fishing, agriculture, transportation, service work, administrators, and specialized labor.

Committee
During the past year, the tripartite committee, led by PAM, targeted a number of areas where violators and transgressors of residency and work laws abound, and thousands of violators were arrested. The tripartite campaigns focused their efforts on controlling violating workers in the fish market, scrapyard in Salmi, Sulaibiya farms, Kabd, Mutlaa, Jahra, random markets in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, Khaitan, Farwaniya. They cooperated with the Residency Affairs Investigation Department to control violators through social media where they advertise fake jobs for domestic workers.

The committee referred to the deportation prison about 3,000 workers working in massage parlors for men for violating public morals and providing immoral services. Most of them are Asian workers. Other official reports revealed that the authority closed the files of 3,000 fake companies, and referred 800 files to the General Department of Investigations due to suspicions of residency trade and violations of the labor law. It also received hundreds of complaints and communications related to domestic workers and employers. Dozens of them were transferred to the judiciary to complete the procedures and restore the rights of workers.

The facilities in Farwaniya and Hawally were closed for carrying out fictitious contracting operations with citizens, and legal measures were taken against them. In the national employment file, 14,963 citizens were registered in PAM’s employment systems during the past year, of whom 37.1 percent expressed their desire to be appointed to private sector jobs. Compared to the numbers registered in the systems for the past year, the numbers decreased significantly, as in 2021 there were about 29,000 job-seekers, 36.4 percent of whom wanted private sector jobs, which indicates a difference in numbers of up to 14,000 citizens. Cumulatively, the total number of those registered with PAM for more than six months, are not currently working, do not receive a retirement pension, and not registered with an educational institution is 17,353 citizens, and 78 percent of them hold university degrees.