Minister Yaqoub Al-Sane

KUWAIT: Minister of Justice, Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Yaqoub Al-Sane recently laid off 1,500 expatriates working for the ministry, granting them a two-month notice to adjust their legal statuses. Sane issued ministerial decision number 123/2016 pertaining stopping employment on a commission system effective on May 11, 2016, exempting Kuwaitis and bedoons (stateless) hired on this system.

Informed sources said that the decision involves around 1,500 expats and exempts around 600 expats upon recommendations made by a special committee Sane formed four months earlier to decide who was really needed and who could be laid off.

The sources wondered what the ministry would do after laying off such a large number of people and whether it would contract a special company to recruit workers the way other ministries did to avoid the remarks made by the Audit Bureau about the large number of expat employees. — Al-Rai