KUWAIT: Well-informed sources said various residency affairs managers have been instructed not to approve any visit or entry visa requests for nationals of Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Iran and Pakistan and refer them to Interior Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah, who will either approve and return the applications to the concerned departments for issuance or reject them. The sources added that the same applies to Bangladeshi applicants.

Meanwhile, well-informed sources at the manpower authority said the authority is studying subjecting expats applying to work in Kuwait to professional tests prior to bringing them here. The sources said the first phase of the tests will be done in Kuwait, and later determine the professions to be tested abroad after the professional standards division sets the job description of each profession. The sources justified the new decision to the fact that some expats had been recruited to work in certain professions but turned out to know nothing about them.

By A Saleh