Crackdown begins on Expat licenses KUWAIT: Kuwait has begun cancelling the driving licenses of foreign students who have graduated and working housewives, tightening already strict rules for expatriates, a daily yesterday cited a top official as saying. “The traffic department has started cancelling the driving licenses” of those people, interior ministry Assistant undersecretary for Traffic Affairs Major General Abdulfattah Al-Ali told Al-Anbaa newspaper. Ali said the measure was taken because the department found that expats given licenses as students have now started working, and the same for some housewives, “which amounts to an act of forgery”. He estimated that “tens of thousands” of driving licenses will be withdrawn. For nearly a decade, Kuwait has imposed strict conditions on the eligibility of its 2.6 million expats to drive. Most foreigners are required to hold a university degree, earn KD400 ($1,400) a month and have lived legally in the country for at least two years before being able to drive legally. Students and housewives with children had been among those exempted from the regulations, along with engineers, judges, lawyers and journalists. But since his appointment some two months ago, Ali has led a campaign in which hundreds of expatriates have been deported without a court order for committing “grave” traffic offences such as driving without a license and jumping red lights. Kuwaiti citizens who commit similar traffic offences can have their vehicles impounded, but only under a court order. Maj Gen Al-Ali made these statements during a crackdown in Al-Dhahr area which saw nearly 23 sports cars impounded for reckless driving. He also revealed that the General Traffic Department collected during May and early June “nearly KD9 million in traffic fines that have been nonpaid for years”. He also confirmed reports that files for serious violations in the ministry’s system have been unblocked “to allow fines to be paid directly” and avoid blacklisting when the unblocking period ends later this month. The Kuwait Society for Human Rights has called on the government to halt the deportations, describing them as “oppressive”. But the campaign has received strong backing from the pro-government parliament, with some MPs calling Ali a “hero”. — AFP -Kuwait Times
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 09:30:08 +0000
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