KUWAIT CITY, Jul 30: Diplomatic circles expressed their surprise at the decision to prevent residents coming from 7 countries, namely Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Iran, Pakistan and Nepal, from entering the country as commercial flights at Kuwait International Airport would be restarting of from 1st Aug, especially since the expats from some of these countries had prepared to travel after the names of their countries were listed by civil aviation.

On Tuesday 28th July, the Director of the Air Transport Department of Civil Aviation Abdullah Al-Rajhi announced that the countries to which flights will resume are the UAE, Bahrain, Sultanate of Oman, Lebanon, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ethiopia, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Iran, Nepal, Switzerland, Germany, Azerbaijan, the Philippines and India.

But as per the new cabinet decision announced by the Government Communication Center on Wednesday midnight and on Thursday by DGCA, excluded the seven countries despite that six of these countries appeared in the list to resume the flights ie: India, the Philippines, Iran, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Philippine sources stated that the Philippines was among the list of the 20 countries allowed to enter the Kuwaitis as announced on Tuesday. It is likely that the decision to prevent entering was due to the high number of Covid 19 cases in some countries, 89 nurses from Philippines was suppose to reach on 1st August, and they have not received any official news regarding this matter.

Preventing Iranian expats from entering Kuwait, an official source at the Iranian embassy denied his knowledge of this surprising decision "Especially after Iranian airlines obtained official approvals by the Kuwait authorities to resume flights from the cities of Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan to Kuwait", expressing "their surprise and amazement from decision to prevent them from returning. ” reports Al Rai.

He added that 'The number of children of the Iranian community who hold Kuwaiti residency and who want to return is not large as most of them have been residing in Kuwait for a long time, and some of them were born in Kuwait and have productive activities in this good country, in addition to that they are among the most law-abiding communities, as well their residency is still valid and their departure was voluntary for tourism or to visit their relatives in Iran after coordination between the embassy and the Kuwaiti authorities'.

He hoped that "This decision will be reviewed as many of their community members have purchased travel tickets and registered on the (Shlonk) platform for those who wish to return according to the conditions of the Kuwaiti authorities, in addition to booking appointments to conduct a PCR test, but the sudden ban decision was shocking to them."