Kuwait- Overstaying Filipinos reminded once again 'Register' soon to leave

(MENAFN- Arab Times) KUWAIT CITY, April 8: The Philippines Ambassador to Kuwait has once again appealed to overstaying Filipinos to register as soon as possible and not wait, what he called, until the last minute to benefit from the amnesty that was issued by the government of Kuwait to allow illegal expatriates to leave the country without paying fines, Manila Times reported.

According to the Philippines Embassy in Kuwait there are at least 6,500 Filipinos, living illegally and who have yet to register for repatriation.

They have until April 12, the deadline given by the embassy to register to meet the amnesty deadline of April 22, midnight. If they fail to register before April 12, 'not all undocumented Filipinos in Kuwait can avail of the amnesty the Gulf state has offered because of the limited time left for them to register in the program,' said the Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa.

This will mean that the embassy needs to process more than 1,500 amnesty applicants a day, until Thursday, to accommodate everyone. Villa said there were more than 10,000 overstaying and 'runaway' Filipinos based on the data of the Ministry of Interior of Kuwait and over 4,100 have been repatriated since January.

In February, the Kuwaiti government agreed to extend the amnesty offered to overstaying Filipinos to April 22, from Feb 21. The decision was made after Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano formally conveyed the extension request to Kuwaiti Ambassador to Manila Musaed Saleh Ahmad Al-Thwaikh.

Villa said those who would not be able to avail of the program would be subjected to arrest, fine and lifetime ban in Kuwait starting on April 22, 2018.

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