KUWAIT: Interior ministry statistics show that a total of 102,280 residency visas of expats working for both the government and the private sector were cancelled between 2015 and the end of the previous year. Statistics showed a remarkable drop in the number of expats in both sectors in 2018, when 2,501 visas were cancelled - an increase of 671 compared to 2017.

Statistics showed that cancelled private sector visas dropped to 15,734 in 2018 compared to 16,141 in 2017, of which 63 percent were for non-Arabs and 32 percent for Arabs. Statistics showed that the majority of cancelled visas in the government sector were for Arabs, with 1,769 visas cancelled in 2018 (70 percent).

Meanwhile, statistics showed that the current number of article 18 (private sector) visas holders is 1,531,000, including 957,000 Asians and 549,000 Arabs, while the remaining are from Africa, Europe, North and South America and Australia. The total number of expats holding article 17 (government sector) visas is 108,000, the lowest number since 2015. Arabs form the majority of expats working for the government at 57,124 (53 percent), while Asians number 47,754, in addition to 495 Africans and 58 from Australia and the Pacific.

By A Saleh