Kuwait seeks solution to “Bidoon” situation at the expense of expats

Kuwait’s labor officials aim to build a platform to register the country’s stateless Bidoon (without nationality) seeking work in the private sector to replace ex-pats, according to a local publication citing an official. 

According to Ahmed Al Moussa,  Head of the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM), the Tayseer platform will be launched on Sunday in coordination with the Central Agency for Dealing with Illegal Residents to register job seekers in the private sector for the category of illegal residents. 

The platform aspires to replace expatriate labor with Bidoon in order to preserve the demographic make-up, protect their rights under the law, and provide them with job opportunities that are compatible with their qualifications and leanings.

Bidoon people, whose number in Kuwait is roughly 85,000 people, have been at the center of a decades-long identity crisis. Foreigners account for almost 3.4 million of Kuwait’s 4.6 million population.

In recent months, there have been increased requests in Kuwait for foreign job restrictions and accusations that migrant workers have put pressure on the country’s infrastructure facilities as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic’s economic fallout.