Almost 450 fake companies have been referred on charges of selling visas affecting more than 100,000 expats, who will have to leave the country by the end of the year, a local daily reported yesterday.
Investigations revealed that the expats never really worked with these companies even though they were on their sponsorship and hence the files of the companies will be closed. It was found that these companies had no commercial activity yet a total of 100,000 workers were sponsored by them.
Drastics steps are being contemplated as it was discovered that these companies had issued visas yet none of the expats worked for them and release was given to them by the visa traders. In order to control the demographic imbalance the government is making earnest efforts to control visa trading by ghost companies.
It was also discovered that many farms were a source of visa trading as visas were issued and the employee was working elsewhere. Many persons managed to leave the country after realising that the companies were under investigation while others await for the flights to resume to depart. The General Administration of Residency Affairs Investigation, referred 535 persons, including 55 citizens, to the investigation authorities for their involvement in these cases, pointing out that the inspection and examination operations on ghost companies and farms was still ongoing, in cooperation with the competent teams of the Ministry of Social Affairs indicating that many of these farms files are considered a gateway to the residence trade.
It was estimated that around 66 million dinars was earned during the two years 2018-2019, as it was found that about 30 thousand workers were brought in from Arab and Asian countries, with a total proceeds of about KD 45 million as the price of one visa was about KD 1500 for some nationalities and more for other nationalities, while residency permits were transferred within the country for about 70,000 residents for an estimate value of KD 21 million.
The paper pointed out that leadership instructions were issued not to tolerate visa traders and hit with an iron hand on any company whose file turned out to be fake, and intense coordination is currently underway between the Ministry of Interior and other concerned authorities to controlthis menace.
Al Qabas