A total of 19,620 Sri Lankans who are residing in Kuwait without valid visas and categorised as illegal residents, have been granted amnesty by the Emir. They are now eligible to depart Kuwait without incurring the penalty of Rs 650,000, as stated by the Sri Lankan Mission in Kuwait. The Mission also highlighted the heavy workload placed on consular services due to the welfare responsibilities associated with this large number of individuals in Kuwait.
They can return to Sri Lanka and subsequently re-enter Kuwait without encountering any obstacles, stated the Sri Lankan Mission in Kuwait.
Official statistics reveal that there are currently 19,620 Sri Lankans residing in Kuwait without legal immigration status, thereby classified as violators of immigration regulations.
His Highness Sheikh Mishal Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, has declared a General Amnesty for residency violators in Kuwait, effective 17 March 2024. The Ministry of Interior announced on 14 March that the amnesty grants violators a three-month grace period, lasting from 17 March to 17 June 2024, during which they can either regularise their residency status or depart the country.
It is said that, in general, the violators are apprehended, fingerprinted, deported and blacklisted so that they cannot re-enter Kuwait.
Sri Lankan Ambassador to Kuwait Kandeepan Bala said looking after the welfare of over 19,000 Sri Lankans residing illegally in Kuwait gives rise to a heavy workload to the mission in terms of consular services and resolving labour issues as the illegals are vulnerable and prone to abuse by their employers who are well aware that the illegal workers have no access to any legal recourse given their status. Hence, the much-awaited amnesty declared in Kuwait is a huge relief to the community as well as the Mission.
The Mission has, having held rounds of discussions with officials of the Interior Ministry under whose purview the residency affairs (Immigration and Emigration) and the Domestic Labour falls, made necessary arrangements to assist the smooth repatriation of Sri Lankan residency violators and facilitate rectification of their illegal status for those who wish to continue as legal residents in Kuwait.
Given the severe shortage of staff, the Mission has drawn from the community about 15 able volunteers who assist the Mission Team taking turns daily at the dedicated facilitation centre, set up in the Chancery premises.
Procedural intricacies have been made available to the SL community in layman’s terms by the Mission both in Sinhala and Tamil languages and disseminated through social media pages owned by Sri Lankans with a large number of subscriptions, published on the Mission’s Website and the FB page and displayed in the Chancery premises, and to date the Mission has been able to register for issuance of temporary travel documents (TTDs) of around 3,900 applicants and managed to process some 3,000 TTDs ready for distribution. Daily, 200 such TTDs are hand-carried by staffers to the Interior Ministry for immigration clearance endorsement, which is a requirement for the departure of residency violators.
Following clearance, the TTDs are handed over to returnees. Additionally, the Mission also negotiated with and secured from SriLankan Airlines and TVS Travels concessional airfares for all prospective returnees.
Kiosks have been set up by the Airline in the Chancery to facilitate the issuance of air tickets.
The Mission assumes that 6,000 – 7,000 Sri Lankans will return to Sri Lanka and the rest of the 19,620 will get their status rectified under the offer of Amnesty 2024.
It is observed that a sizeable number of domestics who have no access to information might not have heard of the Amnesty.
