BAD halts lifting of travel ban on amnesty beneficiaries

Transactions from JID signed by unauthorized staff

By Meshal Al-Sanousi

KUWAIT CITY, April 11: Borders Affairs Department (BAD) suspended the lifting of travel ban imposed on beneficiaries of the amnesty declared by Ministry of Interior which enabled violators of residency law to either leave Kuwait without paying the relevant fines or amend their legal status and stay in Kuwait.

So far, the total numbers of beneficiaries of the amnesty reached 60,000 out of who 32,000 have left Kuwait.

According to security sources, employees of Borders Affairs Department received directives from the security supervisors at the borders to suspend lifting travel bans and refrain from handing over any transactions from the Immigration Department (JID) that are not in line with the set frameworks and did not come via authorized channels.

The reason behind the suspension on lifting the travel ban is the arrival of transactions from Jahra Immigration Department which were signed by unauthorized employees.

The sources said the department is preparing a new mechanism for receiving the transactions of violators and lifting the travel ban issued against them.

They urged the violators to seize the opportunity and use the amnesty period, which ends on April 22, to either leave Kuwait without paying the relevant fines or modify their legal status.

The sources affirmed that Ministry of Interior will deal toughly and strictly with the residency law violators as soon as the amnesty period is over.

It is worth mentioning that Ministry of Interior previously announced that the number of residency law violators in Kuwait is about 154,000 of various nationalities and different labor classes.