Kuwait deports over 300 illegal expats in a day

Cairo: Kuwait has deported 329 expatriates in a single day for having violated the country's laws, a security source.

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior deported the violators on Sunday, Al Anba newspaper quoted the source as saying.

Several of the deportees were initially transferred to the Public Security Deportation Department for violating the residency law and the General Directorate for Drug Control over possession of banned drugs or alcohol.

According to a breakdown, the deportees comprised 173 female expatriates and 156 males of various nationalities.

Nearly 3,000 expatriates are deported from Kuwait every month on legal grounds, according to figures published in March.

The deportations are conducted after court orders are issued against those expatriates in connection to criminal cases, or administrative deportation orders made for the public good.

In case the sponsor or the deportee fails to provide a travel ticket, the ticket is reserved at the Interior Ministry's expense. Later, a financial claim is filed against the sponsor, be a company or an individual, for the value of the ticket.

The sponsor is blocked from recruiting workers from abroad until the ticket is paid.

Kuwait has recently opened a new deportation facility that can accommodate approximately 1,000 males and 400 females. The new building provides all necessary services including health facilities.

Expatriates constitute around 3.4 million of Kuwait's overall population of 4.9 million.

Kuwaiti authorities are pressing ahead with a crackdown on violating expats as part of broad efforts to address the country's demographic imbalance and bring order to the labour market.