Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Anas Al-Saleh has issued a decision to suspend all residency-related transactions of sponsors, if the expatriates under their sponsorship overstay their visa period. This is applicable to Kuwaitis who sponsor foreigners on visit or work visas, as well as to expatriates who sponsor their relatives on visit visas.
Minster Al-Saleh has mandated the Assistant Undersecretary for Residence Affairs Major General Talal Ma’arafi to enforce the decision. The suspension imposed on sponsors will be withdrawn only after submission of proof from concerned authorities that the overstaying expatriate has departed the country.
The Ministry of Interior clarified that the new measures were being taken after it emerged that more than 30,000 people, most of them women and children on visit visas, had not left the country despite the expiry of their visas.
There are also reports that a significant number of people who arrived on visit or business visas have remained in the country, many of whom are believed to be Syrian nationals. Many Syrians who arrived in Kuwait following the outbreak of conflict in their country in 2011 have taken undue advantage of the humanitarian decision to assist them and remained illegally in Kuwait.
Security campaigns will reportedly be strengthened across the country in the coming days to arrest and deport those overstaying their visas, however, the difficulty with these campaigns is that many of those overstaying, such as women and children, very rarely leave their homes.
Another problem that the authorities have faced in the past is that some of those arrested hide their identification documents and claim to be bedouins. The Central System for Remedying the Situation of Illegal Residents (CSRSIR) recently uncovered many such cases where people who entered the country recently hide their documents and claim bedouin status.