MoI gears up for end of amnesty

KUWAIT: Top security officials from the interior ministry held a meeting on Wednesday to coordinate major security and search campaigns against residency violators who have failed to avail a three-month amnesty for illegals which comes to an end on June 30, the interior ministry said. The meeting was chaired by assistant undersecretary for special forces affairs and the head of field campaigns against violators Maj Gen Abdullah Al-Mulla and attended by senior officers.

Mulla conveyed to the meeting instructions by Interior and Defense Minister Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousef Al-Sabah to apply the law on all violators, the ministry said in a statement on X. The interior ministry had granted an amnesty from March 17 to June 17, which was later extended to June 30, to allow violators to either leave the country without any penalty and still have the right to return on a new visa, or to settle their violations by paying fines and legalizing their stay.

The ministry has not disclosed how many expatriates have benefited from the amnesty amid unofficial reports that over 100,000 illegal expats were living in the country. The meeting reviewed a mechanism on how to conduct security campaigns in the six governorates against violators who did not leave the country or legalize their stay during the amnesty period.

In another development, the Public Authority of Manpower was asked by its board on Wednesday to prepare a draft resolution allowing domestic workers (article 20) to transfer to the private sector (article 18) for a period of about two months, the authority said in a statement. The call came during a board meeting chaired by Sheikh Fahad, who is also the chairman of the authority.

The authority said the initiative aims to meet the requirements of the private sector of workers from the domestic market. At present, domestic workers are barred from transferring their residency to the private sector. The authority added that the proposed decision aims at temporarily lifting the ban on the transfer for about two months, and there will be guidelines and preconditions for the move to regulate the process and govern a balance between demand and supply in the labor market. Over 700,000 expats work as domestic workers in Kuwait, including housemaids.