KUWAIT CITY, Nov 13:  The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor is gearing towards the application of a quota system to control the number of expatriate workers in the country to preserve the population structure, reports Annahar daily quoting an informed source.

The source explained the residence permits of highly-qualified expatriate workers and those with rare fields of specialization will be valid indefinitely for the country to fully benefit from their expertise, particularly in the implementation of development projects.

As for the manual labor workforce, the source revealed the ministry intends to limit the validity of their residence permits to five years, while the technicians will be allowed to stay up to maximum of 10 years.  He said this is part of the measures that will be taken to combat human trafficking and visa trading, in addition to encouraging the citizens to work in the private sector.

The source added the ministry is expected to implement the new scheme next year to coincide with the establishment of a public authority for labor affairs.