KUWAIT CITY, May 6: Files that have been blocked by code 71 will be referred for investigations to the concerned committee in Ministry of Interior, reports Arab Times daily quoting a source from Public Authority for Manpower.

He explained that expatriate workers registered under those files will be given a grace period of 60 days for modifying their status and transferring their residencies. After the grace period ends, the labor departments will not be allowed to transfer the residencies of those expatriate workers before the cases are referred to the violations committee.

The source revealed that three categories are excluded from the 60-day grace period:

• husbands of Kuwaiti women,
• holders of the Palestinian document, and
• expatriates with families (wife and children),

adding that certain humanitarian cases will also be considered for exclusion from the grace period, as determined by the committee which will study the cases and decide whether or not their residencies should be transferred.

Code 71. What is it?

The department suspends companies with code 71 if they violate the labor law by bringing workers from abroad or hiring local labor without actually providing them with real jobs or proving their need for such laborers.

This practice is commonly used by human traffickers to bring in workers to Kuwait.

News Source: Arab Times