KUWAIT DEPORTED 1700 EGYPTIAN WORKERS ON FINDING USING FAKE VISAS WITH FURTHER 13000 FOREIGN WORKERS VISAS HAVE BEEN FROZEN WHO ENTERED KUWAIT ON FORGED VISAS AS ALREADY ONE MEMBER OF ROYAL AND RULING FAMILY IS ACCUSED OF RECEIVING KD100,000 EVERY MONTH TO SCAM TO CONTINUE 16TH FEB.2014 About 1,700 Egyptian workers have been deported from Kuwait after inadvertently using fake visas, Kuwait Times has reported. The Egyptian embassy said the expats were the victims of a massive visa fraud ring, which allegedly involves six members of the ruling Al Sabah family, and is presently being investigated. The two countries were working together to assist “thousands” of Egyptians who discovered the jobs they had signed up for in Kuwait did not exist and their paperwork was invalid. “The Egyptian embassy managed in coordination with Kuwait’s interior and foreign ministries to repatriate 1700 workers who entered Kuwait on forged visas,” Egyptian Ambassador Abdulkareem Suleiman told Al Rai daily. About 13,000 foreign workers in Kuwait have had their work permits frozen and face deportation after a visa scam from within the Interior Ministry was uncovered. A parliamentary committee has been launched to investigate a series of allegations that senior Interior Ministry officials, including those from the ruling family, were involved in selling fake work permits to foreigners. The committee was established by Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al Khalid Al Sabah, also a member of the ruling family and who took up his post in August after Sheikh Ahmad Al Hmoud Al Sabah stepped down from the role. The ring leader of the visa fraud system is alleged to be a former director of the Interior Ministry, who is a direct relative of Sheikh Ahmad. The senior official was recently suspended and then forced to “retire”, the newspaper said. At least one member of the Al Sabah family is accused of making KD100,000 ($354,007) a month from issuing illegal visas. The fraud was uncovered when a foreign worker arrived in Kuwait with a visa in the name of Sheikh Ahmad’s office director, Al Rai reported. Authorities used the fake visa to track down thousands of others that had been issued by the former interior ministry director. The investigation had remained confidential until recently, due to the connection with the ruling family. Some MPs have criticised the freezing of thousands of visas because the workers were victims of the alleged scam and had not knowingly committed a crime. The Egyptian ambassador said he could not confirm whether the deported Egyptians would face legal complications and declined to comment on whether they had been fingerprinted and blacklisted, as per Kuwaiti custom for deportees.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 02:46:35 +0000
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