The Kuwaiti government has agreed to help Canadians who want to leave the Gulf state but their employers won’t issue them exit permits, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Thursday.
Global News learned earlier this week that some Canadians want to leave the Gulf state after Kuwait came under attack by Iranian missiles and drones.
But Canadians employed there — like all foreigners working in Kuwaiti establishments — must obtain an exit permit from their employer.
And some employers are ignoring or denying requests made by Canadians to their employers.
“It’s like a hostage situation,” said one of the Canadians trapped in Kuwait earlier this week. Global News agreed not to identify the man out of fear of retaliation from his employer. “Our emails are being ignored and the issues are not being resolved.”
As of March 8, 4,646 Canadians had registered their presence in Kuwait with Global Affairs Canada, and 290 of them, or about 6 percent, had requested travel assistance from the Canadian government to leave the region.
Kuwait has come under fire more than half a dozen times since the US and Israel attacked Iran.
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More than 100 missiles and more than 300 drones targeted Kuwait and some hit the airport, port and some office towers. Four people were killed and about 70 injured, according to news reports from AFP and CBS. The Wall Street Journal and others.
Global Affairs Canada could not say how the Canadians were unable to obtain the required exit permits, but department officials said in an e-mailed statement that it was “aware that Canadians in Kuwait wish to leave and are currently unable to obtain exit permits from their employers.”
In response to a query from Global News on Thursday, Anand said he had telephoned his Kuwaiti counter.
“In times of crisis, diplomacy is a powerful tool,” Anand said in response to a question on Thursday.
“I called the (Foreign) Minister (Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al Mohammed) Al Sabah on this matter and asked him to expedite the ability of the Canadians to leave. He agreed wholeheartedly. And Global Affairs Canada is urgently providing the list of Canadians.“
Kuwait’s law requiring foreign expatriates to obtain an exit permit from an employer is controversial.
“Kuwait’s exit visa requirement violates international human rights law,” Human Rights Watch researcher Michael Page wrote last July as Kuwait updated its exit permit law.
“Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country,” Page wrote. Sanctions may only be applied on a “case-by-case basis” for a legitimate and proportionate purpose, such as a criminal investigation. “
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
(tags to translate)Iran(T)Gulf Region(T)Kuwait(T)Canada(T)World
