Nearly 160000 illegals face deportation

Kuwait has repeatedly extended the grace period for illegal foreign residents in the past months to allow time for them to legalise their status.

Kuwaiti authorities have ruled out granting a new grace period for thousands of illegal expatriates amid a large-scale crackdown across the country to deport them.

Kuwait disclosed this week that it had deported 426 expatriates - 287 men and 139 men - over the period of November 3-9 for having violated the country’s residency law.

Last month, a total of 2,190 illegal expatriates were also deported from Kuwait.

“No new grace will be granted to violators, especially given that the Interior Ministry has heeded the humanitarian side during the coronavirus crisis by granting them four successive graces to modify their status and pay the related fines,” Al Rai newspaper quoted a security source as saying.

The numbers of illegal expatriates in Kuwait are estimated at around 160,000, the paper reported.

If the illegal expatriates are arrested in the current security campaign, they will be deported, banned from re-entering Kuwait for life and from other Arab Gulf countries for five years, the source warned.