KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim, MP Ahmed Al-Fadl, MP Rakan Al-Nisf, MP Nasser Al-Doussari and MP Khalid Al-Shatti submitted a bill on demographic issue.

The bill states that the Council of Ministers will specify the maximum number of required expatriate workers in accordance with the results of researches and studies.

The council will then specify the required number of expatriates who will be brought to Kuwait every year, as well as their specializations and qualifications. Diplomatic, judiciary, political and military delegations are exempted from the specified number; in addition to GCC aviation workers, domestic laborers, wives and children of Kuwaiti citizens, and the workers hired by foreign companies executing infrastructure projects.

The council will terminate the excess expatriate workers in the public, private and oil sectors within five years. There will be no residency renewal for the abovementioned expatriates, except for cases defined in the executive decree of the bill.

The Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) will establish and administer a fund for supporting expatriate workers, cover the plane ticket cost for those deported, and compensate those who will be injured or die because of job hazards. This compensation does not nullify the civil and criminal responsibilities of the employer in case the laborer is injured or he dies due to job hazards.

Resources for financing the fund include fees to be collected from expatriate workers in the form of stamps worth KD 5 for the issuance of visa, vehicle registration and driving license.

The expatriates will also pay KD 3 in the form of stamps for renewing these documents; as well as the issuance and renewal of the Civil ID, while KD 1 will be collected over the price of every plane ticket booked by an expatriate worker, and KD 1 to be added to the electricity and water bills. The State will allocate part of the collected fees and fines for the expatiates fund according to this Bill and Law No. 17/1959.

By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh Arab Times Staff