Kuwait ramps up clampdown on residency illegals

Cairo: Kuwaiti security authorities said they had carried out a crackdown in a major residential district to catch foreign violators of the country’s residency law as part of a relentless nationwide clampdown after a deadline expired late last month.

Security forces had mounted the latest inspection campaign in Mahboula, a residential and commercial area located around 35 kilometres from Kuwait City.

The raid resulted in arresting an unspecified number of illegal expatriates, according to the Interior Ministry.

The violators were referred to the competent agency to take the “necessary” legal procedures and deporting them from Kuwait, the ministry added.

Kuwait recently extended until June 30 a deadline unveiled in March allowing illegal expatriates to readjust their residency status or willingly leave the country. The deadline was originally set to end on June 17.

The amnesty, which took effect on March 17, allowed the irregular expatriate who has a passport to leave Kuwait without having to pay a fine with the possibility of re-entry.

The unlawful resident with no travel document was allowed to get a new one issued and use it for departure.

There are no official figures available on how many expats made use of the grace period.

Since the deadline expiry, Kuwaiti authorities have pursued a large-scale security campaign to arrest the unlawful residents who failed to take advantage of the amnesty.

The deported violators will also be banned from re-entering Kuwait for life and other GCC countries for five years.

The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry has vowed to press ahead with the campaigns and urged members of the public to avoid harbouring violators lest they become liable to penalties, and to cooperate in reporting them to authorities via a hotline.

Kuwait has an overall population of 4.8 million people including around 3.3 million foreigners.