Cairo: Around 30,000 expatriates in Kuwait are becoming illegals and face accumulated fines after their residency permits expired earlier this month, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas has reported.
Those migrants are not covered by a recent decree by Kuwaiti Interior Minister Anis Al Saleh providing automatic extension of expired residency permits and visit visas for three more months, the paper said, quoting security sources.
The decree applies to those whose residency permits expired before August 31, not after.
“Expatriates who have failed to readjust their residency status under the impression their stay is still valid until November 30 are now illegal and fines will accumulate on them,” a source said.
They are facing a two-dinar penalty per day. The Residence Affairs Department in Kuwait’s six governorates have registered the expiry of residency permits of thousands of expatriates since September 1, noting that their sponsors or employers have not applied for readjusting their status including obtaining temporary residency or new work permits, the sources said.
Every expat whose residency permit expired at the end of August is now a violator of Kuwait’s residency law and consequently will be fined two dinars daily, they warned.
Foreigners account for nearly 3.4 million of Kuwait’s 4.8 million population.
