Deportation Over Care: Kuwait’s Failing Mental Health and Suicide Response for Migrants
Deaths by suicide and suicide attempts are on the rise in Kuwait, with survivors being swiftly deported and blacklisted from the country. These incidents reflect a longstanding system of socio-economic exclusion that has an adverse impact on migrants’ mental and physical health. Moreover, low-income migrants are denied mental health care to cope with the uncertainties wrought by the Kafala system.
Surge in Suicides Among Migrant Workers
In recent weeks, Kuwait has witnessed a string of deaths by suicide, the majority involving low-income migrant workers. In early April, local media reported the deaths of a 40-year-old Asian migrant and another from an unspecified Arab country, both found hanging in their accommodation. Later, two more migrant workers were discovered dead in similar circumstances.
Locally known as the ‘suicide bridge,’ Kuwait’s Sheikh Jaber Bridge has been the site of multiple suicides and attempts since its inauguration in 2019. On 2 April 2025, an Indian man attempted to take his own life by jumping from the bridge but was stopped by the coast guard officers. He was arrested, questioned, and subsequently deported and blacklisted from re-entering Kuwait for life. A week later, a migrant working on a farm in Abdali was transported to a healthcare facility after ingesting a cleaning agent in an attempt to take his own life. The Interior Ministry reported that a case would be filed against him once his condition improves.
Located in a remote area north of Kuwait near the Iraqi border, Abdali’s agricultural area is notorious for many cases of suicides among migrant farm workers. Isolated and subjected to harsh living and working conditions, many migrants in Abdali face such extreme desperation that some are driven to take their own lives.
Media reports likely do not capture every incident. The Director of the General Department of Criminal Evidence, Eid Al-Awaihan, stated that in the first eight months of last year, Kuwait recorded 74 suicide deaths — the majority of whom are migrants.
Additionally, several suicide attempts were intercepted. Migrants were stopped or rescued before they could harm themselves, only to be detained and deported by authorities instead of receiving the mental health support they urgently needed or investigating the circumstances of their situation.
The Kuwaiti Penal Code criminalises suicide attempts. According to Article 158, anyone who incites, assists, or attempts to commit suicide may be punished with imprisonment for up to three years and/or a fine not exceeding 250 Kuwaiti Dinars. Under Article 79 of the Penal Code, any foreigner who is sentenced and arrested authorises the judge to order their deportation.
Kuwait’s response to suicide attempts has previously drawn criticism from segments of Kuwaiti society. In 2021, Dr. Fawaz Alkhateeb, a professor at Kuwait International Law School, argued that those attempting suicide are victims of psychological conditions and urged the Ministry of Interior to fulfil its legal responsibilities rather than ‘terrorise’ those who attempt suicide by deporting them. He emphasised that victims should be referred for medical and psychiatric evaluation and care, in line with the 2019 Mental Health Law.
The criminalisation of suicide — and the tendency to treat such cases as isolated incidents — leaves little room for meaningful efforts to understand, investigate, or address the socio-psychological stressors and depression that can lead to such acts. This is not to suggest that all suicides are solely the result of the precarious social conditions many migrants in Kuwait endure; suicide is a complex, multifactorial phenomenon. However, the government’s punitive approach ignores the exploitative labour and immigration structures that can drive people to desperation, such as domestic workers trapped and abused in a private home, or workers whose wages have been stolen. In 2022, Kuwait deported 13 Turkish migrants who threatened to commit suicide after months of non-payment.
While research on migrant workers’ mental health in the Gulf remains limited, an academic article on suicide patterns in Kuwait highlights that the majority of suicide cases involve migrants — most of whom are manual labourers or domestic workers from low socio-economic backgrounds. Live-in domestic workers, in particular, face heightened vulnerability due to isolation and exploitative working conditions. A study of hospitalised domestic workers in Kuwait found that “psychiatric morbidity among housemaids is two to five times higher than in the native female population,” with the most common reason for psychiatric hospital admission being a “severe reaction to stress.”
In 2017, Human Rights Watch reported that domestic workers in Kuwait who attempt to escape abuse by jumping from buildings are often recorded by authorities as having “attempted suicide.” The organisation interviewed eight women who were officially classified this way but stated they had either fallen while trying to flee abusive employers or had been pushed. In every case, the employers were not held accountable for the conditions that led to these incidents.
Lack of Care by Design
Although migrants make up the majority of Kuwait’s population—and most suicide cases—there are currently limited 24/7 suicide hotlines available in the diverse languages spoken by migrant communities.
Access to affordable, culturally sensitive, and multilingual mental healthcare remains limited for migrants in Kuwait and across the Gulf. Although Kuwait has expanded mental health services in the public health care facilities in recent years, these services are primarily available in Arabic and English, excluding many migrants.
Moreover, many migrants avoid seeking mental healthcare at government facilities due to fear of being reported to authorities and subsequently deported—a fear that is far from unfounded. In 2022, the then-MP Badr Al-Humaidi called for the deportation of migrants with psychiatric hospital records, claiming they pose a “threat to the safety and security of society.”
In 2023, local media reported that Kuwait’s Interior and Health Ministries had announced plans, following a parliamentary request, to cancel the residency permits of expatriates receiving treatment at the psychiatric hospital and proceed with their deportation. The report stated that the Health Ministry had compiled a list of patients and categorised them based on the severity of their condition. For domestic workers, whose access to mental healthcare is entirely controlled by their employer, experiencing a mental health crisis or being admitted to a psychiatric hospital often guarantees a one-way ticket back to their home country.
While it is vital to support the calls of mental health professionals advocating for greater awareness and expanded access to counselling and culturally sensitive mental healthcare for migrant workers, it is equally important to understand that these suicide cases are not isolated incidents, nor are they disconnected from the broader abusive socio-economic conditions faced by many low-income migrants in Kuwait. A critical approach to suicide among migrants in Kuwait and the wider Gulf must address the socio-economic inequities that are widespread in these societies — conditions that not only limit access to support but also push many migrants to desperation.
It is also important to recognise the tension between mental healthcare provision and the structures of labour migration in Kuwait and the wider Gulf. These structures are designed to exclude so-called ‘mentally unstable’ migrants and those deemed ‘unfit to work’ due to mental health conditions. This exclusionary intent is evident in public statements by Kuwaiti officials calling for stricter medical screenings to ensure workers are ‘psychologically fit,’ as well as in the design of the region’s medical testing regimes, which deny residency or entry to those with mental health conditions that may affect their ability to work.
