Kuwait: Dozens rounded up in clampdown on illegals
Authorities vow continued campaigns to expose violators of residency law
Cairo: Around 394 illegal foreigners and wanted outlaws have been rounded up in a security crackdown in Kuwait, local media reported.
The arrests included 328 people in the area of Al Mahboula in Al Ahmadi governorate and 66 others in the area of Jleeb Al Shuyouk in Farawaniya governorate during the large-scale swoop, Al Rai newspaper said without giving a breakdown of the nationalities of the detained people.
The Interior Ministry said security campaigns continue nationwide to arrest illegals and outlaws.
Th ministry urged members of the public from citizens and expatriates to cooperate with police and avoid sheltering foreign violators of Kuwait’s residency law.
Kuwait has repeatedly extended the grace period for illegal foreign resi-dents to readjust their status.
In May, Kuwaiti newspaper Al Anba reported that authorities are likely to impose penalties on sponsors of foreigners who came to the country on visit visas and have not left in violation of rules.
The penalties could include a two-year ban on those sponsors for obtain-ing any sponsorship visas, according to the report.
Reports show that some 14,650 foreigners have entered Kuwait on visit visas in the past three years and have not left for their home countries, swelling illegal expatriates in Kuwait, the paper quoted an unidentified source as saying at the time. The Gulf country seeks to redress its demographic imbalance amid fall-out from the COVID-19.
Foreigners make up nearly 3.4 million of Kuwait’s overall population of 4.6 million.
In recent months, there have been increasing calls in Kuwait for curbing foreigners’ employment along accusations that migrant workers have strained the country’s infrastructure facilities amid economic repercus-sions from the pandemic.