Cairo: A total of 8,143 expatriates were deported from Kuwait in 2020, a security report showed today.
The deportees included 6,003 handed over by the residency affairs police and 2,140 others by other sectors of the Interior Ministry, the report published by Al Jarida newspaper said.
Some 317 people were, meanwhile, interrogated during the year in connection with cases of human trafficking and fraud, it added. Seventy-one of them were sent to Kuwait’s Central Prison.
Kuwaiti prosecutors also handled 44 cases related to illegal residencies in exchange for money involving 259 persons, of whom 21 were sent to the Central Prison.
Illegal residents
Egyptian expatriates accounted for the majority of overall suspects in offences, including 221 or 69.7 per cent in criminal cases and 176 or 64.5 per cent in misdemeanor cases, the paper said.
Foreigners make up nearly 3.4 million of Kuwait’s 4.8 million population. Illegal residents registered at the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry are estimated at 186,000 from different nationalities.
Restrictions prompted by the global coronavirus pandemic are believed to have increased their numbers.
In recent months, there have been increasing calls in Kuwait for curbing foreigners’ employment amid accusations that migrant workers have strained the country’s infrastructure facilities.
