Sheikh Mazen Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah

KUWAIT: Escorted by the Ministry of Interior's Assistant Undersecretary For Citizenship Affairs Major General Sheikh Mazen Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah, undersecretary Lt Gen Suleiman Al-Fahd visited Kuwait International Airport where the problem of Syrians who were mistakenly branded as holders of fake passports was resolved.

Responding to reporters' questions whether Fahd's visit was made specifically for that reason, Sheikh Mazen Al-Jarrah stressed that the undersecretary was used to making such sudden visits and confirmed that the visit was one of the main reasons of resolving the problem in a short time, because he usually goes around the airport asking both airport officials and passengers about the treatment they (passengers) received.

"The visit showed that some passport counters' staff were indifferent and others were abusive in dealing with passengers," Sheikh Mazen Al-Jarrah explained, noting that border staff should be patient, hardworking, have endurance and not to jump to conclusions that might irritate passengers. Sheikh Mazen Al-Jarrah added that some haste was involved in handling the Syrians' case and that passport officials could have exerted a little more effort to make sure the passports were not fake in order to prevent the problem from snowballing. - Al-Rai