DNA testing exposes 164 illegal holders of Kuwaiti citizenship

Cairo: DNA testing has helped Kuwaiti authorities unmask 164 persons, who have for years unlawfully borne Kuwaiti citizenship as the country is pressing ahead with a high-profile crackdown on people who obtained its nationality through forgery.

The latest case was exposed upon a tip-off to the Kuwaiti Nationality Investigation Department about suspected forgery allegedly committed by a citizen, who obtained the country’s citizenship some decades ago, a security source said.
After scrutiny, it was proven that the case involved fraud and forgery.

While the man obtained Kuwaiti citizenship legally in the early 1960s, he resorted to falsity to enable three brothers, who resided at the time in a Gulf country and held its nationality, to obtain Kuwaiti citizenship, Al Jarida newspaper quoted the source as explaining.The Kuwaiti citizen falsely registered the three siblings as his children.
Authorities not only proved that the three brothers were not his children, but thoroughly vetted the files of the trio and found that one of them had registered 43 other persons as his children, most of them fraudulently, as they are not part of his paternity.
A Kuwaiti supreme committee in charge of nationality verification decided to withdraw citizenship from the three brothers, and from everyone who acquired it through them. They totalled 164 including children and grandchildren, according to the source.

Investigations are underway into the eligibility of the brother, who originally registered them, to verify whether he holds any other nationality that is banned under Kuwaiti law.

Last week, the state committee decided to withdraw Kuwaiti citizenship from 3,043 individuals for different reasons including fraud, marking them the latest batch of nationality revocations in the country.
The decision will now be referred to the Council of Ministers for approval.

Authorities have already stripped thousands of people of Kuwaiti citizenship since early March due to fraud or holding another nationality.

Kuwait, a country of around 4.9 million people mostly expatriates, has recently launched a clampdown on citizenship fraud and duality to protect national identity.