KUWAIT: A total of 88 foreigners recently arrested in labor crackdowns in Ahmadi will be deported for violating residency and labor laws. Many of those arrested are either violating labor laws by working for people other than their sponsors or did not have valid residencies. Several of the arrested were also listed as absconding from their previous employers.

Employers found to be employing absconding workers will have their files closed at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, preventing them from sponsoring future employees or renewing visas of current employees.

Kuwait regularly conducts crackdowns in high density areas to reduce the number of illegal and marginal workers living in the country. In March 2016, the Interior arrested and deported 1,053 illegals after raids in Jleeb Al Shuyukh. In another raid in Khaitan, 1,170 workers were detained and dozens of illegals arrested and deported.

"The raid was part of the security campaigns launched regularly by the ministry to arrest lawbreakers, convicts and wanted people," the interior ministry said. "We checked the documents of those detained and allowed 2,378 people to go. However, 1,170 were referred to the competent authorities for deportation. The list includes seven who were wanted in relation with felonies."

The ministry said that 218 of the detainees had broken the residency rules and overstayed in the country despite the expiry of their permits. Two thirds of the 3.4 million people living in Kuwait are foreigners, including tens of thousands of unskilled workers from Arab and Asian countries.