2,400 mentally, visually impaired citizens lose driving licences; expatriates 32,000 for various reasons

The Head of the Public Relations and Traffic Awareness Department at the General Traffic Department, Colonel Nawaf Al-Hayyan, said about 2,400 driving licenses have been withdrawn from citizens because they suffer from mental or visual disabilities.

Col Al-Hayyan told Al-Rai a majority of them are men.

This is in addition to the withdrawal of 32,000 driving licenses from expatriates, either because they do not meet the conditions, or obtained them illegally, during the first ten months of the current year.

Al-Hayyan stressed that “the General Traffic Department is strict in issuing driver’s licenses, after linking the issuance with government agencies, including the Residence and Manpower Affairs Sector and the Authority for the Disabled, a step that has greatly contributed to tightening the screws on those who had previously obtained driving licenses and changed their professions, or forfeited the right to be eligible for acquiring the licence.

As an example he cited the students who had acquired the licence but after completing the studies failed to surrender and as a result a block was placed on their transactions and forced to surrender the license.

As part of the process of controlling the issuance of driving licenses for expatriates, he indicated that “the number of licenses issued from the beginning of January to the end of October 2021 decreased by about 43%, compared to the number of licenses issued last year, which was about 72,000, which fell this year to 41 thousand.