Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, heads the National Committee for Regulating Demographics, which is responsible for uprooting vice, purifying the labor market of menial workers, and cracking down on visa traders.

Additionally, the government is accelerating its efforts to Kuwaitize state jobs. This came just 24 hours after the Council of Ministers decided to form a committee in this regard, reports Al-Qabas daily.

According to sources, Al-Khalid has instructed the Public Authority for Manpower and other concerned institutions to do more to alter demographics and intensify the Ministry of Interior's efforts to arrest thousands of expatriates who violate labor and residence laws, identify fake companies, and identify visa brokers and work permit sellers.

According to sources, the Minister of Interior also emphasized the importance of opening up to new countries that export skilled labor.

Over a period of four years - from 2019 to the end of 2022 - the Public Authority for Manpower and the concerned authorities referred 139 visa trade cases to the Public Prosecution.

A source told the daily that 16 cases of visa trade were referred to the Public Prosecution in the past year alone, eight times more than in 2021.

121 visa and trade cases were referred to the Public Prosecution Office in 2019 and 2020, according to sources.

In the same context, the head of the Migrant Workers Committee at the Kuwaiti Human Rights Society, Mishari Al-Sanad, told Al-Qabas that sponsorship leads to a tragic situation for some workers, as a result of the employer's delays in paying their salaries, forced labor, and filing malicious reports without the worker's knowledge, contributing to a high number of cases like these.

In addition, Al-Sanad stated that working overtime without additional pay or housing is not suitable for human life due to the large numbers of workers huddled together. Furthermore, the owners of companies circumvent the law to their advantage, along with closing the company file without informing the worker, resulting in the worker falling foul of the law.

As a result of these issues, Kuwait's rating decreased, according to a report issued by the US State Department last year. Al-Sanad stressed the lack of evidence of increased effort to combat such issues. The number of victims is growing and the government has not taken concrete and sufficient measures to protect them.

After confirming that they had purchased residency permits from a fake company, the tripartite committee arrested 205 violators of the Labor and Residence Law in just eight days in May, including 89 on a list of those prohibited from renewing their work permits.

Based on informed sources, the committee referred to the competent authorities those in charge of the fictitious company seized in the Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh area, which sells visas. In addition, 13 fictitious offices managing domestic workers were raided in the Farwaniya and Mubarak Al-Kabeer governorates.

As a result, the Committee of Owners of Consumer Order Delivery Companies revealed the response from the Assistant Undersecretary for Public Security Affairs and the Assistant Undersecretary for Operations and Traffic Affairs, Major General Abdullah Al-Rajeeb, regarding the transfer of any violators of the Labor and Residence Law from the delivery companies to the relevant authorities, since this business thrives and is rife with illegal workers.