Kuwait: 127,000 expats lose residency permits

Kuwait: 127,000 expats lose residency permits

The number of expatriates working in Kuwait, who have lost their residency permits for being abroad due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions, has surged to about 127,000 people, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported Thursday.“This is due either to laxity of those expats to renew their iqamats or as a result of deliberate action by some sponsors or governmental bodies,” a security source told Al Rai newspaper.“Despite the Interior Ministry's call for the expatriates staying abroad to expedite renewal of their residency permits online and offering them facilities, many of them have not made use of the decisions issued on humanitarian grounds,” added the source. There are around 500,000 migrant workers holding valid Kuwaiti residency permits still outside the country, according to the same source.The Kuwaiti interior minister recently decreed extending permits and