Manama: Kuwait has imposed a blanket ban on nationals from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan from entering the country, local media have reported.
The ban includes suspending all tourism, visit and trade visas, as well as visas sponsored by spouses, Kuwaiti media quoted immigration sources, as saying.
They attributed the blanket visa ban to the "difficult security conditions in the five countries" and "the remarkably increasing tendency of nationals from the five countries to apply for visas to bring in relatives who faced or could face arrest by the local authorities to Kuwait," Gulf News reports.
According to the sources, the authorities insisted that no exception in the visa application would be tolerated, but asserted that the ban was temporarily and would be lifted following the stabilisation of the security situation.
Last month, a social affairs and labour official had denied reports that Kuwait was planning to impose a ban on issuing visas to nationals from the five countries.
ANI
First Published: Sunday, May 22, 2011, 23:34