Following the ban placed by President Trump on the nationals of countries with Muslims that he sees as potential threat to the lives
and safety of Americans, Kuwait has followed suit by placing bans on citizens of some Islamic countries.
It was gathered that the tight entry restrictions were placed as a result of the instability of those countries with the government of Kuwait pledging to lift the bans as soon as the security situation improves.
The nationals of the countries that will no longer be issued visas include:
1. Syria
2. Iraq
3. Iran
4. Pakistan
5. Afghanistan
Passport holders from this countries will no longer be allowed to enter the Gulf state with many of them being told not to apply there for now. The citizens of the banned countries will not be able to obtain Kuwaiti visas for visits, trade or tourism.
For a while now, Syria and Iraq have been engaged in internal conflicts while Pakistan and Afghanistan have witnessed violence from extremist groups. The tensions between Iran and the Gulf have destabilised the region.
The presence of extremist groups like the al-Qaeda and the Islamic state which have militant organisations in Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq made Kuwait place a ban on the issuance of visas to nationals of these countries.
The Gulf state had suffered from a number of attacks in recent times and this left many people dead. The bombing of a Shia mosque in 2015 will always be relevant when assessing the impacts of terrorism in that region.
A 64-country intern-nations survey carried out named Kuwait as the worst place in the world for expatriates in 2015. The country had also enacted a number of laws targeted at foreigners in recent times and this made it one of the most unfriendly Gulf states with regards to expatriates.
Although the world is yet to recover from the news of Donald Trump’s decision to ban Syria and six other middle eastern and African countries, Dhahi Khalfan, the chief security of Dubai shocked Syrians and the other nationals included in the ban when he openly supported Trump’s decision.
Up until the time the US placed a ban in Syrians, Kuwait remained the only country in the world to ever place a ban on people from this country as the country had issued an all ban on Syrians in 2011.
