KUWAIT CITY, Jul 31: The Ministry of Interior has announced that nearly two and a half million Kuwaiti citizens and expats have undergone biometric fingerprinting since the project's inception. Major General Eid Al-Owaihan, the Director General of the General Department of Criminal Evidence, stated that the campaign has fingerprinted 2,487,932 individuals, including both citizens and expatriates.

Approximately 22% of Kuwaitis and 28.5% of expatriates have yet to be fingerprinted. Al-Owaihan emphasized that the biometric fingerprinting initiative is progressing according to a well-planned strategy, overseen by the relevant sectors in the Ministry of Interior and directed by the First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior, and Minister of Defense Sheikh Fahd Al-Yousef. He praised the cooperation of citizens and residents, which has contributed to the success of this significant national project.

To facilitate the process for the elderly and people with special needs, the Ministry plans to contract with a company to provide mobile devices, allowing these individuals to be fingerprinted at their residences or hospitals using disability certificates or birth certificates. The Ministry has extended the deadline for biometric fingerprinting: for Kuwaiti citizens, the deadline is now September 30, while expatriates have until December 30 of this year. After these deadlines, transactions for any citizen or resident who has not completed the biometric fingerprinting will be halted, except for those with special needs and the elderly, provided they present official documentation until the mobile devices are made available to them.