45-day amnesty for foreigners to regularise stay in Kuwait
Kuwait on Saturday declared a 45-day amnesty to foreigners living in the gulf country without proper documents. This allows them to regularise their status or leave the country without paying a fine, reported Arab Times yesterday.
The amnesty, which takes effect today and ends on October 15, is a humanitarian gesture by the Kuwaiti Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on the occasion of Ramadan, the newspaper reported quoting Kuwait's official news agency, KUNA.
Kuwait is home to around 2.5 lakh Bangladeshi workers. Several thousand are believed to be illegal.
Irregular expatriates who choose to leave Kuwait during this period will not have to pay fines, said a decree issued by the Gulf's Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Khaled Al-Sabah.
Those who decide to stay should pay fines to regularise their status. Kuwait fines illegal aliens two-dinar ($7.5) per day. Those caught after the grace period expires will be deported and barred from re-entering the country, said a statement.
"This gesture by His Highness the Amir has been made in affirmation of the noble humanitarian values, adopted by the state toward this segment of the residents of the country," said the interior minister.
Sheikh Jaber Khaled, in the ministerial statement, said the grace period was given to some of these offenders to have a chance to leave the country without being penalised for evading the authorities on fears of penalty which they may be unable to pay.
"Those who wish to stay in the country can do that on condition they pay the fines and the authorities will grant them the residency regardless of their nationality," the minister clarified.
Residents who had come to the country on a visit visa but did not have a residency permit can report to any border exit and leave the country and the ones who have lost their passports and got new ones can report to the immigration authorities with two photos to process their departure.
Foreigners with a travel ban, as a result of absence from work, are also allowed to leave the country through any exit but those with court records must report to the prosecution to settle their cases.
Foreigners with a travel ban, imposed by the investigation authorities for unsettled felony cases or offences, should meet the required terms and apply for residency during the set period or face deportation.
The interior ministry statement said as to the segment of people who claim that their passports had been seized by their employers, they must get new ones and leave the country within the set period or apply for residency, otherwise they will be forced to leave the country.
Thousands of Bangladeshis went on work strikes at the end of July demanding pay hike and better working conditions.
A US-based labour rights group National Labour Committee in its recent report said hundreds of thousands of foreign workers in Kuwait are paid half their wages. Employers also seize their passports and force them to work 11 hours a day and seven days a week.
Kuwait, where some 2.35 million foreigners live and work alongside a million nationals, has given illegal residents similar grace periods in the past.
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