The Kuwait Ministry of Interior today announced that the country had granted an amnesty to illegal expatriates to leave the country without paying fines or to legalize their status by paying fines. The amnesty period is from January 29 to February 22, 2018.

However those expatriates who have any kind of travel ban related to any cases are exempted from this amnesty.

Those who leave the country during this amnesty period are allowed to enter Kuwait again if they meet the regular conditions of entry and if they were not banned for another reason.

The amnesty granted by the Kuwaiti government comes in the wake of Union minister of state for external affairs VK Singh's recent visit to Kuwait. V K Singh had taken up the issue of thousands of Indian workers at Kharafi Company who had not been paid their salary and pending dues for more than 10 months. Thousands of Indian workers became illegal as their residency expired because the company was not willing to renew their residencies.

According to source, V K Singh had taken a strong stand for these distressed Indian workers during his last visit and asked the Kuwaiti authorities to waive penalty for those who wanted to return to India. It is to be noted that till last month Kuwait had reiterated that the country does not have any plan to give grace period for illegal residents because earlier grace periods have not acquired the desired results.