Migrante: Kuwait begins crackdown on illegal migrants

MANILA, Philippines - Kuwaiti authorities has intensified its crackdown against illegal migrant workers, Migrante said Friday.

Migrante vice chairperson John Monterona said that according to Kuwait-based overseas Filipino workers, Kuwaiti authorities have been conducting house-to-house searches of illegal migrants in various districts.

Monterona said that last May 29, over 1,000 expatriate workers were rounded up in New Farwaniya, Jleeb, a populous district in Kuwait.

About 203 were arrested in an early morning raid last June 10 in Hawalli district, Monterona added.

"This causes so much fear not only to undocumented OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), but as well as to those who are legally staying and working in Kuwait as there were reports of a number of legal or documented OFWs apprehended by Kuwait authorities," he said.

Last April, Saudi authorities launched a massive crackdown on illegal expatriate workers.

Weeks after, the Saudi King ordered a halt by providing a 90-day grace period to allow the documentation and legalization of all "illegal" migrants in the Kingdom.

"Like Saudi Arabia, the crackdown by the Kuwait authorities has something to do in getting rid the country from expatriate workers who comprise around 69 percent of Kuwait’s 3.9 million population," Monterona said.

Kuwait is reportedly planning to cut 100,000 expatriate workers yearly starting this year.

"More than 20 OFWs were apprehended. Some of them with legal papers and properly documented with Kuwait-issued civil IDs," Monterona added.

The Philippine Embassy and labor officials in Kuwait have created a task force to help OFWs amid the massive crackdown by Kuwait authorities on "illegal" migrants.

There are nearly 200,000 OFWs living and working in Kuwait, a small, oil-rich Arab country and one of the world’s leading oil producers.