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Kuwait deported 6,560

expatriates

KUWAIT: Kuwait deported 6,560 expatriates in 1994, 4,923 of them for violating residency laws, interior ministry figures published on Saturday show.

Others deported included people convicted of liquor offences or crimes involving immorality or theft, the figures published in the English-language Arab Times said. Use of alcohol other than for medical purposes is banned in Kuwait.

In Kuwait, expatriates convicted of a range of crimes including residency violations are usually deported following payment of fines or completion of jail terms.

Foreigners, most of them Arab and Asian guest workers, make up one million of the Gulf state's total 1.8 million population.

The number of crimes committed in Kuwait in 1994 rose 24 percent to 18,969, of which 5,622 or 29 percent were felonies and 11,654 or 61 percent were misdemeanours. The ministry figures gave no further breakdown.-Reuter