Parliament summons 2 ministers over engineer crisis abroad

CAIRO – 21 May 2018: Parliamentarian Zeinab Salem has requested both the ministers of higher education and immigration for briefing at the Parliament Monday morning over the engineer crisis abroad, specifically in Kuwait.

Salem explained in statements to Egypt Today that Egyptian engineers abroad are facing real threats that may end their carriers. “Kuwait’s public authority of manpower issued a new decree regarding recognizing the engineers and considering them to be able to practice the profession inside the county. The new legislation bans them from working without having graduation documents from universities and institutions recognized by the Kuwaiti government, along with having a special permit from the Kuwaiti Association of Examination and Evaluation of Engineering Qualifications,” Salem said.

She added that engineers living abroad have issued formal argues and requests to the Egyptian authorities to look into the new Kuwaiti rules that put their careers at risk; however, nothing has happened, according to her.

Salem added in her statements that decrees like these need to be faced by strong strategies from the government, not just for the engineers, but also for any similar circumstances that may take place in the future, especially that the new Kuwaiti legislation demands paying high-cost fees to get the needed permit.

In February, the Kuwaiti government said that no engineers are eligible to practice their profession without graduating from universities recognized by the government, along with having special permit, which they get after examining their documents and paying about 30 Kuwaiti dinars ($99.21).

However, not all universities around the world are recognized by the Kuwaiti government. Some media outlets, including the Kuwaiti website El-Bawabah, considered the new legislation to be unjust and in need of being reconsidered by the government, especially that it puts hundreds of engineers’ carriers at risk. “There are plenty of working engineers inside the country who are graduated from several and different universities around the world; however, not all of them are recognized officially by the government,” the website stated in a report published March 14.

According to the El-Bawabah report, the Kuwaiti government recognizes 24 foreign countries, six Arab countries and five Gulf countries. About 28 Egyptian universities are recognized officially by the government.

In another report published by the Kuwaiti Al-Qabas newspaper on March 15, several meetings were set to be organized between the Egyptian embassy in Kuwait and a number of the officials in the government; however, no further details were revealed about these meetings.