More than 8,000 expat children in violation of residency law
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KUWAIT CITY, Dec 5: While the Ministry of Interior renewed its demand for residency violators to amend their status and take advantage of the new deadline that began on December 1, informed security sources revealed the existence of “more than 8,000 expatriate children who are in violation because of the failure of their relatives to register them after birth, which puts them in the category of unknown status ”, reports Al-Rai daily.
They referred to the Ministry of Interior’s directive to approve an automated linking project with the Ministry of Health, which allows birth registration in the Ministry of Interior’s database immediately after birth at any of hospitals of the Ministry of Health or private hospitals.
The sources said, “It has been discovered that there is a large number of expatriates with children who do not inform the Ministry of Interior of their status to complete the residency procedures for them. They were content with just obtaining the birth certificate in order to escape the payment of residency and health insurance fees, or because the father is a violator of the residency law. This makes the child in violation of the residency law and without data with the Ministry of Interior due to lack of electronic link with the Ministry of Health.”
They revealed that, “During the last period, about 8,000 children were discovered whose parents submitted requests to amend their legal status after five years of their birth. When asked about the reason for not doing this process throughout those years, they stated that the reason is their financial inability to obtain residency permits for their children, but when the children turn five, the parents are forced to amend their status in order to enroll them in schools.
The project prepared by the Ministry of Interior grants the guardian a period of four months to complete the procedures for registering their newborn children. After that a fine of KD 4 will be imposed for each day of delay. What contributed to the increase in the number of violators is that the financial fines on the violator does not exceed KD 600, even if the violation continues for several years. This is what made some resort to this behavior.
The goal of linking with hospitals and the Ministry of Health immediately after the birth of the child is very important, because Kuwait is a signatory to the International Convention for the Protection of Children. The presence of any child without official documents exposes him to danger because he is not registered in the records of the Ministry of Interior, and it is difficult to infer it in the event he is left in the country, for example if his parents leave, and he thus becomes anonymous.”
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