Kuwaiti interior minister questioned over illegal expats

Cairo: A Kuwaiti lawmaker has submitted a query to the country’s Interior Minister Thamer Al Ali about the situation of illegal foreign residents in the country following yet another grace period offered to them to legalise their status.

In mid-April, Kuwait extended the grace period for the illegal residents by one more month.

At the time, authorities urged illegal residents to apply for readjusting their status during the new extension period expiring in mid-May, saying that those failing to do so will be liable to penalties, including denial of residency permission, deportation and a ban on re-entry.

In his question, MP Abdullah Al Tereiji requested the minister to provide him with a breakdown of nationalities of the illegal residents and the measures taken by the Interior Ministry to arrest the illegals and act against their sponsors, according to a media report.

No specific number of illegal residents in Kuwait has been given. Last year, they were estimated at about 100,000 visa violators.

Kuwait has repeatedly extended the grace period for illegal residents in the past few months.

The first grace period began in March last year following the global coronavirus outbreak and was supposed to end in May 2020.

The Gulf country has in recent months sought to redress its demographic imbalance amid fallout from the pandemic.