By IANS,
Dubai : Fifty-six people have already taken advantage of a new 45-day amnesty scheme for illegal foreign residents in Kuwait that came into effect Sep 1, an official said.
Assistant general director at the general department of immigration Colonel Bader Al-Hamadi said that these violators have benefited from the new law, which allowed them to depart from the country without having to pay any fines, the state-run Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported.
He, however, did not give a break-up of the nationalities of the 56 people.
He called upon other violators to come forward as the deadline of Oct 15 was still far away.
According to Al-Hamadi, immigration departments across the Gulf city-state would assist all individuals to either adjust their illegal residency status or help them leave the country.
Those who have no travel documents would be allowed to leave the country within the specified period mentioned in the new law, he said.
Expatriates willing to return to their respective countries after deportation must follow the official channels and procedures.
Al-Hamadi, however, said that those committing serious felonies would not be allowed to leave the country and would not benefit from the scheme.
Meanwhile, assistant undersecretary for citizenship and passport affairs at Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf Al-Sabah held a meeting with the chairman of the committee tasked with implementing the amnesty scheme.
The meeting discussed the mechanism of implementing the ministerial decision issued in this regard.
Director of the department of public relations and moral guidance Adel Al-Hashash, who was also present at the meeting, said that the fact that the initiative came upon orders from Kuwait’s ruler Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah himself meant that it must be implemented within a “civilised” working mechanism.
On his part, Sheikh Ahmad said that bringing foreign labour into the country must take place through official channels in accordance with the laws in place, which would keep guarantors from violating the law.
He added that no one who voluntarily left the country would be allowed to return unless regular procedures were followed.
Kuwait is home to around 550,000 expatriate Indians, a majority of them engaged as contract labourers in the country’s booming construction industry.