Kuwaiti expat business owners can now self-sponsor

Expatriates who own their own business in Kuwait will no longer have to be affiliated to a local sponsor as part of measures to improve the labour market, officials said.

Tradesmen like barbers, butchers, mechanics and carpenters will now be granted self-sponsorship, Mohammad Al-Kandari, undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour told a press conference on Tuesday.

According to a report in Kuwait Times, a new labour law that gives expats more benefits is expected to be passed by the National Assembly during the its next legislative term.

This follows the move in August to allow expats working in the private sector to switch jobs without the consent of their sponsor and move after one year if their employer has no objections.

"The move is a first step towards the total abolition of the sponsorship system and aims to put an end to modern-day slavery," minister Mohammad Al Afassi said at the time.

Bahrain was the first Gulf country to scrap its sponsorship system earlier this year in a bid to reduce its need for imported labour.

Under the new regulations, which came into being in August, foreign workers are directly sponsored by the country's Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) and able to move jobs without consent from their previous employer.

Meanwhile, at least 60,000 expat workers residing in Kuwait are not registered with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, senior officials revealed.

The error, blamed on ministry mismanagement, was only discovered after data files were being update, an official told the paper.

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