KUWAIT CITY, Feb 21: Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor has granted a 4-month grace period for expatriates residing in the country illegally to amend their status, beginning March 1 to June 30, 2011, irrespective of the period of violating the residency law, reports Al-Shahed daily quoting assistant undersecretary for the Labor Sector Mansour Al-Mansour as saying.

He said the violators of residency law leaving the country will not be blacklisted to facilitate their coming back to the country if they wish and that no restrictions will be imposed on them, once they leave the country within the grace period. He indicated the violators wouldn’t have to pay the due fines. Sources disclosed an estimated 20,000 illegal residents of different nationalities reside in the country at the moment.

Meanwhile, the ministry has forwarded a draft law on the establishment of Public Authority for Private Sector Personnel to the Cabinet. The proposal will be referred to the National Assembly after the study has been completed in that regard to pave the way for its approval. “There is no legislative gap, in case the draft law is not referred to the concerned authorities in time. However, the authority is in the phase of establishment and the ministry has issued several ministerial decisions in order to organize the labor market in accordance with the labor law of the private sector,” Al-Mansour stressed. He reiterated that work is ongoing at the various departments of the ministry without any legal hindrance.