Expatriates struggle to make ends meet as hardship bites
Kuwait Times
21/03/2019
By Chidi Emmanuel
It is always a solemn moment whenever Tina comes home and
doesn’t see her six-year-old daughter Rosaline. “Life without her is just
empty,” she said as she narrated her ordeal. According to Tina, life went from
bad to worse when her husband lost his well-paid job last year. “Things became
very hard for us. We could neither pay Rosie’s school fees nor get her a nanny.
So we decided to send her to my mother in Ghana. My husband is just managing as
a sales representative and I am working in a salon. To keep Rosie here (in
Kuwait), we need at least a studio apartment, an affordable school for her,
renew her residency, etc. These are luxuries we cannot afford right now. I miss
her a lot,” Tina lamented.
In spite of the financial opportunities of living in Kuwait,
foreign workers are struggling to cope with the high cost of living. Some
expats are seeking ways to readjust to the harsh realities. These include
moving to smaller apartments, sharing apartments, sending their families home
and other cost-cutting measures. Another area that people find difficult are
expenses related to raising children, as the overall cost of bringing up a
child gets higher and higher every day.
With inflation at its highest level, driven primarily by
rising housing and utility costs, a lot of expats said they spend more on
accommodation and groceries these days. From Fahaheel to Salmiya, there seems
to be an unusual trend as most newly-completed apartment buildings remain
empty. In some buildings in Maboula and Sabah Al-Salem, caretakers (haris) are
offering one month’s rent free in a bid to woo tenants. “I got a good bargain.
At least the haris waived a month’s rent (KD 250) for me – that’s why we moved
to Maboula,” said Ruth Kadri, another Ghanaian expat.
As companies struggle with slower business and authorities
impose more fees on foreigners, Kuwait’s economy is losing some of its luster
for expats who once flocked to the country. According to a recent report, the
number of foreign workers dropped by around 0.3 percent in recent months. The
good times for foreign workers in Kuwait, who for decades lived tax-free amid
hugely subsidized utilities, may well and truly be over. The government has
increased healthcare costs for expatriates. Unlike in the past, the health
ministry is now passing the high costs of medical
operations, equipment,
medicines, laboratories and various medical supplies to expat patients.
Public hospitals and polyclinics in Kuwait are now
collecting increased fees for services offered to expatriates. The new fees
include KD 5 for visiting the emergency department at the general hospital; KD
10 for visiting outpatient clinics; KD 10 per day for inpatients; KD 30 for a
stay in the intensive care unit (ICU); KD 50 for a private room and KD 200 as
deposit, etc. As for maternity cases, KD 10 will be collected from patients per
visit, in addition to KD 50 for a normal delivery.
A tax-free income is one of the key benefits of living and
working in Kuwait, but with changing financial circumstances, some foreign
workers have decided to leave Kuwait for good. Expatriate salaries and benefits
used to allow people to live a luxurious life and still save. But over the past
few years, spikes in costs have taken away the feel-good factor from their
lives.
Adams has sent his family back to Canada. “Things are not
the same anymore here. I really can’t cope with the high cost of living here,”
he said during a sendoff party his friends organized for him. “First, I had to
move from a three-bedroom to a two-bedroom and eventually to a one-bedroom
apartment, but still there are school fees and medical bills to pay, which have
skyrocketed over the last few years. At this point, I couldn’t manage it
anymore, so I had to let them go,” he said in dismay.
Most expats in Kuwait are now forced to tighten their
budgets as prices of commodities, medical fees, etc have gone up, with core
living expenses such as housing, education, medical expenses and transportation
fees showing no sign of going down. Eighteen years ago, Khalil Faisal left his
family in Bangladesh to move to Kuwait. “My salary of KD 120 remained the same.
I could manage then, but I can’t now because of the high cost of living. It is
better for me to be with my family than to waste my whole life here,” he said
before he left Kuwait for good a few months ago.
Another family forced out due to the financial crisis was of
Ahmed Ibrahim. Just like Khalil, Ahmed said he could hardly save any money in
the past three years. He had no other option than to relocate his family (wife
and two teenage children) to Egypt, where he plans to open a business. “At
least I can afford to pay the children’s school fees in Egypt,” he said.
Recent months have seen a surge in layoffs as companies cut
costs. “I was told to quit as part of cost-cutting measures. I was a longtime
employee of the company.” These are the words of Indian expat Sachin Sahaj, one
among a number of expats who had their employment terminated last month.
According to recent reports, work contracts of 3,140
non-Kuwaitis serving in the public sector have been cancelled in recent months,
Chairman of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Ahmad Al-Jassar said. These
contracts have been invalidated as part of the state’s policy of replacing
expatriates with nationals in the government sector. The dismissed personnel
served in various ministries, government departments and independent bodies.
Jassar affirmed that these workers have been laid off in line with the state’s
policy of Kuwaitizing jobs in the sector, as stipulated by CSC decision
11/2017, which exempted jobs in health sector.
