KUWAIT: Over 65,000 residency violators benefited from the grace period offered by the authorities, adjusting their status in the country, an interior ministry official said on Sunday. In an interview with KUNA, Director of the General Department of Residency at the Interior Ministry Brig Yousef Al-Ayoub revealed that the grace period offered to residency violators from March 14 to June 30, 2024 was in line with the state’s humanitarian ethos to enable violators to amend their status and follow legal procedures.
Most of the violators were in the areas of Mahboula and Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, he revealed, adding that the interior ministry would continue its efforts to crack down on those violating residency laws. Since the grace period ended, some 4,650 people have been apprehended, Ayoub said, noting that violators would be unable to return to Kuwait once deported.
He noted that sponsors of residency violators would be subjected to a block and they would be notified through the Sahel application of their sponsored individuals’ arrest and subsequent legal procedures against them. Violators with no travel documents will be issued emergency travel papers before being deported, Ayoub affirmed.
The interior ministry had intensified its efforts in the last three months to track down residency violators and implement the law concerning the matter. The grace period was offered to allow violators to seek legal means to stay in the country. The issue of residency violators has had an impact on the fabric of society, with some individuals seeking illicit activities to make ends meet. The campaign also sends a message to sponsors bringing people into the country and leaving them to their own devices, creating some degree of lawlessness and confusion.
The interior ministry has also deported a number of expats who overstayed their visit visas along with their sponsors after arresting them. It said in a statement last month that a number of expat women working in Kuwait had issued family visit visas for their husbands and children, but the visitors exceeded the duration stipulated in the visas. If visitors overstay, they and their sponsors will be listed under a special security tracking system run by the detectives of the residency affairs department and legal measures will be taken against them, the ministry had warned. — Agencies