Senior Kuwaiti official probed over ‘unauthorised’ decision to ban expats over 60

A senior Kuwaiti official is set to be probed for issuing a decision that bans expatriates aged over 60 who do not hold a university degree from renewing their work permits, according to local media reports.

The decision taken by the Public Authority of Manpower (PAM) has reportedly been deemed ‘illegal’ by authorities, with the authority’s director general Ahmed Al Moussa set to be questioned.

The Legal Advice and Legislation Department has invalidated the ban – which was issued in August last year – saying that it had no legal basis.

The department also reportedly claimed that the decision had been issued by the PAM director-general without authorisation.

The ban, which took effect earlier this year, has led to more than 4,000 expatriates leaving Kuwait’s workforce in the first six months of its implementation, local media reported.

The number of expatriates in Kuwait dropped by 56,300 in the first half of 2021, according to official figures.

Read: Kuwait’s expat population down by 56,000 in the first half of 2021 – report

The ban was seen as apart of efforts to reduce the number of expatriates in Kuwait as the country seeks to ‘rebalance its population’.

Foreigners account for 3.154 million of Kuwait’s total population of 4.628 million (as of the end of June 2021).