KUWAIT: Director of the Labor Relations Department at the Manpower Authority Abdullah Al-Meri said the department received 12,800 absconding reports filed by employers since the start of this year, Al-Rai reported. He said 244 workers in the private sector cancelled their residency permits and left the country in the same period after lodging labor complaints, while 4,315 individual labor complaints were sent to court as they were not settled at the labor relations department.

Meri further revealed that there are two means to register labor complaints - through units of labor relations departments, and through the authority's website with the username the manpower authority gives when a laborer registers his phone number. Meri said labor complaints are of two types - work permit complaints with regards to transfers or cancelations. The second are individual complaints, whether they are financial, for passport custody or other demands. As for the period of discussing the complaint, he said it is done during a maximum 15-day period from the date of the investigation session.

Meanwhile, Minister of Social Affairs and State Minister for Economic Affairs Hind Al-Sabeeh said that the number of registered expats at the Public Authority for Manpower is 1,697,411 of 165 nationalities, while the number of Kuwaitis is 69,902. She said in an answer to a question by MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei that according to the authority, Indians make up the majority with 560,547 workers, followed by Egyptians with 445,798, Bangladeshis with 174,145, Pakistanis with 81,587 and Filipinos with 76,256. She added that there are 58,409 Syrians, 22,919 Iranians, 19,976 Sri Lankans, 19,270 Lebanese, 11,144 Chinese, 6,762 Americans, 4,538 Iraqis, 261 Germans, 56 Cameroonians, 2,392 Moroccans, 3,519 Ethiopians, 9,873 Afghans, 2,260 Jordanians and 9,811 Sudanese working in Kuwait.