Officials examine plans for repatriating illegal residents
Coordination with embassies to shoulder responsibility for facilitating departures
KUWAIT: Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, along with Minister of Social Affairs and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Mariam Al-Aqeel, on Tuesday held a meeting for the team tasked with organizing return of residents to their countries with Interior Ministry Undersecretary Essam Al-Naham at the ministry headquarters. Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser, Minister Aqeel, Undersecretary Naham and other attending officials, examined the plan for repatriating the illegal residents during the meeting, held at the Foreign Ministry Headquarters.
The officials touched on measures undertaken by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, coordinating with embassies of the concerned states so these missions would shoulder the legal responsibility for facilitating departure for their citizens. The meeting involved other officials, namely the head of the border committee Ambassador Majdi Al-Dhafiri, the assistant foreign minister for
Asia Ambassador Ali Al-Saeed, the assistant foreign minister for Africa Ambassador Abdulhamid AlFailakawi and the assistant foreign minister for the minister bureau affairs Ambassador Dhari Al-Ejran.
The session was also attended by the assistant foreign minister for the minister bureau affairs Saleh Al-Loughani, the assistant foreign minister for development and international cooperation Nasser Al-Sebeeh, the deputy assistant of the foreign minister for consular affairs Anas Al-Shahin and other ministry officials.
The Interior Ministry had issued an amnesty allowing residency violators to leave the country between April 1 and April 30 without paying any fines or airfare with a chance to return to Kuwait later. While thousands have already left Kuwait, thousands others remain in shelters in the country pending repatriation amidst the global pandemic that shut down air traffic around the world.
The amnesty was issued in view of the circumstances the country is currently going through and as part of the precautionary measures taken to fight the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). During the amnesty period, individuals desiring to procure valid residencies in Kuwait and were willing to pay the fines without being subjected to investigations were allowed to pay the fines and legalize their status if they meet the required conditions.