The government in Kuwait has once again issued a warning that citizens and expatriates who do not register their fingerprint biometrics by December 31 will lose access to all essential services.
According to a recent announcement on the Interior Ministry’s Facebook page, individuals who fail to comply will have their banking and government services suspended.
To avoid losing these services, a biometric fingerprinting appointment must be booked before the deadline via the ‘Meta’ platform or ‘Sahl’. This warning follows previous alerts issued since September regarding the mandatory registration of fingerprints.
The government initiated compulsory fingerprint registration in March, aiming to build a national database to enhance national security and streamline access to public services. The initial deadline was set for September 30, with those who did not complete their registration facing difficulties in accessing banking and other public sector services. The latest warning from the Interior Ministry indicates that more services will become inaccessible for non-compliant individuals.
As of September, around 2.5 million citizens had completed their biometric registration, while by October, 470,900 expatriates had been registered. There are still over 20,000 citizens yet to submit their biometrics, according to recent figures from the authorities.
Last month, Brigadier Nayef Al-Mutairi, the Director of the Criminal Evidence Department’s General Department of Personnel Identification, addressed concerns about data and privacy violations related to the fingerprinting process, assuring that appropriate safeguards have been put in place to protect individuals’ data and privacy.
Read More: Kuwait to Freeze Services for Unregistered Individuals
Back in November 2024, the authorities in Kuwait had intensified actions against individuals who have forged their documents to obtain nationality and violated the country’s laws.
According to a local media outlet, the Nationality Investigations Department of Kuwait submitted a report to the High Committee for Kuwaiti Nationality informing it about the status of residents with dual citizenship.
Minister of Defence and Interior Sheikh Fahad Yusuf Al-Sabah heads the committee which is responsible for examining and reviewing files to uncover forgers and dual nationals. The committee presents its decisions to the Council of Ministers for approval.
Following the report, the Kuwaiti government revoked the nationalities of over 4,200 in cases such as divorcees and widows of citizens who had obtained citizenship according to Article 8.
Additionally, the nationalities of hundreds of people were revoked after they were found to have provided false and misleading information to obtain Kuwait’s citizenship.
The breakdown of the data suggested that the authorities on Thursday revoked the nationalities of 1,647 people at once.
It was the second-largest number of people whose nationalities were revoked at once, after 1,535 nationalities were revoked on November 14.
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