Number of illegals in Kuwait drops to 136,000
New grace period for residency violators ‘unlikely’
Cairo: A massive-scale security clampdown on illegal expatriates in Kuwait has resulted in trimming down the numbers of those illegals in the country significantly to around 136,000, a Kuwaiti newspaper has reported.
Most of the foreign violators of Kuwait’s residency law are Asian nationals, Al Anba added, citing a security source that did not give a previous figure of the illegals.
However, Kuwaiti media last year put the number of illegal foreign residents at around 160,000.
Kuwaiti authorities are unlikely to give illegals a new grace period soon to rectify their status, Al Anba quoted the unnamed source as saying on Thursday.
“A part of the recently deported violators were arrested inside dubious places and were also involved in illegal manufacture of alcohol,” said the source.
Kuwait has recently stepped up security campaigns on illegal expatriates after having repeatedly extended the grace period for violators of its residency law to readjust their status.
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 repercussions from COVID-19.