Kuwait has announced yet another grace period for expats living without residence in the country, offering them one month to either legalise their status or exit the country.
A new ministerial decree issued by Minister of Interior Sheikh Thamer Al Ali extended the grace period to 15 May for residency violators to legalize their residences or leave the country voluntarily.
The earlier deadline for residency violators had expired on 15 April, and the new extension will come as a relief for many expatriates whose residence permits have expired. The extension now grants them an additional month and yet another opportunity to rectify their residency status.
Reasons attributed to the latest extension include its humanitarian aspect, taking into consideration prevailing health situation and various precautionary measures in place to combat the virus. In addition, lack of staff at concerned ministries to process the residency permits have also reportedly played a role in the current extension.
In addition to the partial curfew from 7pm to 5am that precludes any evening shift, working hours during the holy month of Ramadan are limited to only four hours in public sector entities, Moreover, precautionary measures in place to combat the virus also limit the number of workers in ministries to 30 percent of total staff.
Kuwait has strict laws to tackle residency violations, including imposing penalties and jail terms followed by deportation from the country and a ban on re-entry.
Foreigners have also not been allowed to enter Kuwait since January of this year as part of efforts to prevent the entry of the virus and to contain the spread of infections in the country. Only certain categories of workers, such as those related to health services and domestic workers are allowed to enter Kuwait, while strict restrictions prevent any exodus of expats that could have a huge repercussion on the labor market in Kuwait.
Despite the stringent measures available to tackle residency violations, the repeated grace periods have blunted efforts by security personnel to tackle the issue. The extensions have also taken the sting out of warnings from the authorities about dire consequences if residency violators do not rectify their status or leave the country voluntarily.