KUWAIT: Chairman of the Central Agency for Remedying the Status of Illegal Residents Saleh Al-Fadhalah announced late Wednesday that the agency has presented its final report on the matter to senior state officials. In statements to reporters at the National Assembly, Fadhalah said that the agency has finished the first stage of its mission by submitting the final report to state officials. He added that the second stage would start later and focus on implementing a roadmap to resolve the problem.

Fadhalah estimated the total number of illegal residents (bedoons) who were registered in the national census of 1965 at 34,000. Being registered in 1965 does not mean that they are automatically eligible for naturalization, he said, explaining that some of them have already left the country, or had passports of certain countries and some others have security problems. —KUNA