Cairo: Kuwaiti authorities have denied reports about extending a grace period ending Thursday for thousands of illegal residents and demanded them to leave the country.
“The grace given to violators of residency, who have been stuck in the country because of the coronavirus pandemic, will not be extended. They have to leave the country before the end of the month,” Director of Security Relations and Media Department at the Ministry of Interior, Brig Tawhid Al Kandari, was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
He added that a large number of expatriates had entered Kuwait on visit visas and have been unable to leave. “The ministry has granted them temporary residency permits for three months that were renewed three times. After the general situation improved and airports and other ports reopened, they were required to leave during the last month-long grace period,” he added, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida.
Kuwait plans to resume international flights on January 2 after it suspended them and closed land and sea borders from December 21 to January 1, 2021 to prevent the spread of a new strain of COVID-19.
The closure has derailed departure plans for illegal residents who wanted to readjust their status, Al Jarida said, citing what it termed as well-informed sources at the Interior Ministry’s residency affairs sector.
Around 73,000 illegal expatriates have applied to legalise their status, they added.
“The Residency affairs sector has informed the expatriates, who applied to modify their status, that they must leave the country and that they can return on work, commercial visit or family visas on condition that they must pay the required fines before departure,” a source said.
The illegal resident, who fails to pay the violation fine, will be blacklisted and banned from entering Kuwait.
Illegal residents registered at the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry are estimated at 186,000 from different nationalities, according to the same sources. The virus-related restrictions have increased their numbers.
Earlier this month, Kuwait extended by one month a deadline for illegal residents after it was originally due to expire on November 30.
