KUWAIT: Despitethe interior ministry's measures to deport residency law violators, theresidency affairs department's data showed a rise in iqama violators, whoreached 115,000 by Wednesday, compared to around 107,700 violators in April2018, an increase of seven percent, Al-Qabas daily reported yesterday, quotingsources. The grace period given to violators to leave or correct their statusin 2018 resulted in reducing their number to 107,000 after 58,000 tookadvantage of the amnesty, according to interior ministry numbers.
But during the 16months since the grace period expired, the number of violators has gone up,reaching 115,000 in the database of the residency affairs department, thesources noted. The interior ministry is monitoring the violators and ispreparing a plan to confront their rising numbers, and there will be campaignsto round them up.
Meanwhile, Al-Raidaily quoted informed sources who said the process of deporting expats fromKuwait is costly and is borne by the interior ministry. The sources said thecost of deporting expats is around $3.7 million, adding that this amount willbe included within the financial allocations of the interior ministry, withoutalluding to any additional details with regards to the number of thosedeportees or the period.
In other news,government sources said there are plans to regulate electronic publications andplace strict rules that limit chaos caused by some bogus accounts, Al-Raireported yesterday. The sources said accounts will be dealt with very strictlyand will not be allowed to compromise social harmony and spread doubts aboutothers' integrity. They said a review of the electronic publication laws isbeing conducted to close some loopholes in some items.