Experts caution over laying off foreign workers

Making foreign workers redundant was not the answer to the current economic problems facing the Gulf economy, a conference on labour migration heard in Kuwait on Sunday.

Delegates were urged to rethink plans to lay off of overseas staff as they were an important part of the solution to the global crisis, according to Shahidul Haque, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) representative for the Middle East.

The statement was made as Hague opened the four-day conference titled 'Enhancing Management of Temporary Foreign Labor in Kuwait, which is being held at Costa Del Sol until Feb 19, reported Kuwait daily The Kuwait Times.
 
Hague urged the Kuwait government not to turn their backs on foreign workers, who played a key role in the future of a global economy.  

“The foreign workers can be considered an important part of the solution. They can be a decisive factor in turning the crisis by creating new wealth or making sustainable business opportunities," he said.

“We need to be pro-active in promoting and realizing the idea of "safe mobility as an opportunity for all," Hague added.

Focusing on new economic activities and innovative business initiatives in which workers, both skilled and unskilled, could be productive, was the way out of the economic downturn, he argued.

Valerie Cliff, UN resident coordinator in Kuwait, who also spoke at the conference, said like any other nation, Kuwait should redouble its efforts to provide attractive and sustainable job opportunities.

"Kuwait's national development goals are in fact defined by its strategic vision, which is to become a financial and commercial center attractive to investors where the private sector leads the economy, creating competition and promoting efficiency,” she pointed out.

A plan of action on labour migration issues drawn up by the government in coordination with the private sector, workers, local citizens and expatriates was needed, she added.

The conference, funded by the British Embassy in Kuwait, was attended by Mohammad Al Kandari and Jamal Al Dousari, both undersecretaries of Kuwait's Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour.

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