‘Abdali port opening to facilitate export of goods to Iraq’

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 5: Thirteen additional doctors were summoned to speed up examination of travelers and facilitate their entry at the Al-Nuwaiseeb entry point, reports Al-Rai daily. The daily quoting security sources said the Nuwaiseeb border point is witnessing severe congestion because of cars entering from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and this has forced the port administration to mobilize additional manpower to facilitate their entry into the country easily and smoothly, through a mechanism which allows five cars to enter every five minutes.

The Director-General of the General Administration of Ports, Brigadier General Iyad Al-Haddad, stressed that the obstacles at the port should be removed for incoming travelers, by increasing medical personnel and security men. Al-Haddad said, in a special statement to the daily that during his tour at the port, after re-opening the Salmi border point last Thursday great preparations were made after a closure that lasted for more than 6 months due to the corona pandemic. He added, there is an agreement to increase the working hours from eight in the morning until six in the evening, referring to what he called “A plan that we activated, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, to help enter 1,200 Kuwaitis and Gulf passengers and 600 truck drivers, by helping to enter 15 vehicles every 5 minutes at the two ports.”

Facilitate
Al-Haddad continued saying, “We have received instructions from the Council of Ministers to open the Abdali port to facilitate the export of goods to Iraq, and that meetings are being held with the health and customs authorities to put the final touches to its opening, which is expected within days, but we are now in the process of coordinating the PCR certification for truck drivers, especially those in transit, but in principle we and the Ministry of Interior is fully prepared as soon as the green light is given by the Ministry of Health.” Al-Haddad concluded by saying “since the beginning of the opening of the border crossings 15 days ago, we have been working full capacity to facilitate the movement of travelers, as about 16,000 travelers have entered the county through the ports (until yesterday).”

He indicated, they adhere to the instructions of the Ministry of Health, when it comes to examining the travelers. For his part, Dr Badr Al-Tarish, of the Ministry of Health team supervising the examination of travelers at the port, said, “What you see in terms of crowding and complaints from travelers is due to the high number of travelers, which forced us to press into service 13 doctors at the Nuwaiseeb border point to examine arrivals into the country and at the same time to speed up the entry of vehicles. He added, “A mechanism and action plan has been developed to provide more than one clinic inside the port to examine travelers, and all help all those who enter the country to download the (Shlonak) application before entering the port, provided that the traveler has a PCR examination that was issued not before 48 hours.”