Public Authority for Manpower improves labor assessment software to fight trafficking

The Public Authority for Manpower recently approved a program for assessing expat labor needed for government projects. The new program will help put a permanent end to inaccurate or fake assessments, local media reported.

The program aims at developing actual assessments to recruit only the needed numbers of laborers per project and avoid marginal labor that leads to demographic imbalances.

Inaccurate assessment of labor needs has in the past been blamed for contributing to visa trafficking by allowing companies to use the extra slots generated for unneeded workers to issue visas that are then ‘sold’ to laborers looking to work in Kuwait.

Every private company in Kuwait has a file in the Public Authority for Manpower’s database which stipulates the number of employees a company can hire. Based on that number, a corresponding number of work visas is issued to serve the company’s labor recruitment needs.