The Philippine Embassy in Kuwait announced through its advisory in social media the details of the partial amnesty offered by Kuwait to its nationals immediately after the general meeting held by different embassy officials with Kuwait Immigration and Interior. April 1 till 5 have been allotted to Filipino nationals and with other nationals from 26 till the 30th. The procedures were announced to ensure that all Filipino nationals be guided accordingly to process their documents.
The advisory announced that Filipinos with cases involving absconding, expired visas, remains in the morgue, women with undocumented children and travel bans depending on the case, those with travel ban cases will be subject to evaluation and approval. All nationals may register in schools: Salma Bint Hamza School for Girls and Muthana Primary School for Boys in Farwaniya located in Block 1 Farwaniya. All national who will qualify in the amnesty program will not be allowed to leave the premises and will have to check in the shelters allocated, where they will be transported to the airport.
Applicants to the amnesty program will have to bring four passport size pictures with a blue background, an original passport even if expired or copy of their passport, if actual ones are not available. Should none of these are available, travel documents will be processed and given. The Philippine Embassy, Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will set up their tables to provide full assistance to Filipinos. Since public transport services are not available, the Philippine Embassy will post advisory stating dates and specific locations where private buses will be available.
The Philippine Embassy urged all its nationals who are qualified to avail of the partial amnesty program of Kuwait and not waste the opportunity. Filipino nationals availing the amnesty are also advised not to proceed to the embassy during these dates but directly to the venues prescribed as no processing of documents of such nature are available and those who are not qualified to avail the program may not report to the processing area. The partial amnesty program has been launched by Kuwait with intentions to deport all illegals in the country, decongest jails and shelters.
OWWA and POLO with support from the Philippine Embassy recently repatriated 253 Filipino nationals from Talha deportation, Public Authority for Manpower and Embassy shelter. The repatriation program was the Kuwait government’s initiative to send Filipinos home from those institutions. Tickets and processing of documents have been sponsored fully by the Kuwait government. The Philippine Embassy, OWWA, and POLO laud and extend its gratitude to the Kuwait government for these privileges.
– Ricky Laxa, Staff Writer