Kuwait has banned the entry of all Filipino nationals, except those with valid residence permits. The ban includes those who possess new work visas. A Philippines official says the move is a retaliatory measure aimed at forcing the sending country’s hand.

Kuwait now requires non-nationals to renew their driving licences annually. Previously, licences were valid for a period of three years.

Bahrain’s Labour Market Regulatory Authority has recently announced that its Protection and Grievances Centre will now provide administrative support in filing civil lawsuits for migrants registered with the new “Labour Registration Programme”.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development recently announced that it has resumed the official recruitment of domestic workers from Ethiopia after a hiatus of more than three years. 

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) recently added the recruitment of 13 distinct domestic work categories to its Musaned platform, including female driver, private tutor, housekeeper, personal care worker, and house manager. Previously, such workers would have been recruited under the general category of ‘domestic worker.’

Saudi Arabia has introduced a number of initiatives to regulate the cost of recruiting a domestic worker, including nationality-based recruitment caps and a monthly instalment plan for recruiting workers from Indonesia.

Saudi Arabia doubled the renewal fees for “exit and re-entry visas” for residents who are outside the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia remains the only Gulf state that effectively charges migrants fees for exiting and returning to the Kingdom.

Kuwait’s Public Authority of Manpower launched a new electronic service for labour disputes involving domestic workers. The new e-service will allow both domestic workers and employers to submit complaints.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait have intensified efforts to identify and deport migrants with irregular status in recent months. Over 70,000 migrants were detained between November and December by Saudi alone.

Non-Kuwaiti residents are now required to pay additional fees when purchasing medicine, on top of the healthcare and insurance fees they already pay. The move is the latest in a series of discriminatory public health policies.

The number of requests for job changes and rejections are on the rise in Qatar. Moreover, the rejections of new recruitment requests have also increased drastically in the last several months, likely in an effort to reduce the number of migrant workers in the country ahead of the World Cup.

Following several official deployment bans over the years, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia signed a bilateral agreement on 11 August 2022 that aims to increase the number of Indonesian domestic workers in the Kingdom.

Expanding localisation programmes, Saudi Arabia and Oman have recently issued ministerial decisions that ban migrants from certain jobs in the private sector.

Saudi Arabia has updated regulations that permit domestic workers to change employers without their current employer’s permission under certain conditions.  These conditions remain limited, and in practice, domestic workers still face a number of obstacles in obtaining a new employer.

Saudi Arabia has recently signed labour agreements to recruit private sector workers and domestic workers from Sierra Leone, Thailand, and Burundi in an effort to fill labour shortages, which are largely due to deployment bans from origin countries that are demanding better protections for their workers.

Qatar’s new compulsory private health insurance system for all non-citizen residents, including visitors and those employed in the public and private sectors, is being rolled out in phases. The full text of the law’s executive regulations have not yet been made public.