Kuwait Times, Saturday, Oct 9, 2021 | Rabi Al-Awwal 3, 1443
Legal department scraps 60+ expat residency ban decision
Kuwait:
The government’s legal body, the Fatwa and Legislation Department, yesterday
announced that a decision to ban expats aged 60 and above without university
degrees from renewing work permits is “illegal”, and accordingly, older
residents can renew their work permits and residencies as usual. Head of the
Fatwa Department Salah Al-Mesad said in a ruling to Commerce Minister Abdullah
Al-Salman that the ban decision was issued from an unauthorized official, and as
a result is null and void.
Director General of the Public Authority for Manpower Ahmad Al-Mousa issued the
decision last year stating that residents aged 60 years and above who do not
hold university degrees are not permitted to renew their work permits, which is
a precondition to renew the residency. The decision, affecting tens of thousands
of expats who spent most of their lives in Kuwait, was harshly criticized by
many MPs and local human rights bodies as “inhumane”, who repeatedly called on
the government to cancel it.
But it was seen by some as a means to reduce the number of foreign residents,
who form close to 70 percent of Kuwait’s population of 4.5 million. Two weeks
ago, the minister of commerce and industry sent a letter to the fatwa department
asking for a legal viewpoint on the validity and legality of the decision.
The department wrote back yesterday explaining the decision was issued by
unauthorized personnel, adding decisions regarding work permit regulations must
be issued only by the board of directors of the manpower authority chaired by
the minister himself. It added that Mousa, the director general, is not
authorized to issue such decisions, and as such it is illegal and holds no legal
status.
The ruling means that procedures regarding issuance and renewal of work permits
for expats will return to the way they used to be before the decision was issued
14 months ago. But before the return to regular procedures, the commerce
minister must issue an official decision scrapping the old decision, which
should be a formality.