DUBAI: Women married to Gulf nationals will be exempted from an entry ban in place in Kuwait on 6 nationalities, the country's immigration department said on Monday. The move comes after Kuwait barred all tourism and business visas for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan last year. It had resulted in wives of Gulf nationals not being allowed in the country, but the government announced it would no longer hold the blanket visa ban in place for female spouses. It did not mention anything related to men married to Gulf nationals. It appears this ban is still in place. Authorities attributed the blanket visa ban to the “difficult security conditions in the 6 countries” and to “the remarkably increasing tendency of nationals from the six countries to apply for visas to bring into Kuwait relatives who faced or could face arrest by their local authorities.” Kuwait last May insisted that no exception in the visa application would be tolerated, but added that the ban was temporarily and would be lifted after the security situation stabilized. Local Arabic daily newspaper al-Anba on Monday reported that Kamel al-Awadhi, the head of immigration, said that women from any of the 6 countries married with nationals from any of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries were exempted from the ban, in line with decisions taken by GCC interior ministers on free movement. The GCC is made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/8nX0y Tags: Ban, Gulf, Travel, Wives Section: Gulf, Kuwait, Latest News, Women
