KUWAIT: Expatriates who have not carried out the compulsory biometric registration will not be able to leave the country, an interior ministry officer said. Speaking to Kuwait Radio, First Lieutenant Talal Al-Khaledi of the Criminal Evidence Department said that a "block” has been placed against the names of expats who have not submitted their biometric data, and this means they cannot leave the country.
The ministry has also suspended bank accounts and all transactions of some 280,000 Kuwaitis, expats and bedoons, or stateless people, who have not registered their biometrics, Al-Khaledi said. He said that as many as 3.526 million people have submitted their biometric data.
For Kuwaitis, 956,000 have submitted the data and around 16,000 have failed to do so, while as many as 2.685 million expats have registered their biometrics, with around 182,000 having failed to do so. As for bedoons, 66,000 of them have submitted their biometric data, while 82,000 have not done it, Al-Khaledi said. The officer said people can still register their biometrics as the Criminal Evidence Department operates some eight centers for 12 hours daily, capable of dealing with 10,000 clients daily.
Meanwhile, the criminal court on Wednesday acquitted former MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri of charges of spreading false news about the biometric registration. Muwaizri arrived at Kuwait airport in October and refused to undergo the registration because of his apprehensions over the process. Authorities insisted he must submit his biometric data to be able to enter the country like all Kuwaiti citizens.
He refused, and after staying for three days at the airport, left the country. The public prosecution then charged him of spreading false news that the interior ministry stopped him from entering the country. Muwaizri later returned to the country after the court started hearing his case and submitted his biometrics at the airport. In court, Muwaizri denied the charges.
Meanwhile, the interior ministry warned on Wednesday that a ministerial resolution issued on Dec 2 stipulates a ban on the use of the civil ID as a travel document by Kuwaiti citizens to and from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries if their passport is not valid.
The ministry stated in a post on its official account on X that one of the articles of the resolution specifies that it is not permitted to travel or move to GCC countries using the civil ID if the passport is expired or lost or during the process of issuing a replacement for a lost passport or while a decision on passport withdrawal is pending. The statement added the ban applies during the period required for the issuance of the revocation decision, provided that this period does not exceed two weeks.