GENEVA, May 12 (KUNA) - Kuwait's delegate to the Eighth Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council's (UN-HRC) briefed the conferees on Wednesday on the intricacies of the issue of the "illegal residents" in the country.

"This issue has been a major concern for the Kuwaiti community as well as the government for a long time," Lt.-Col. Mohammad Al-Waheeb, representative of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior, said in his address to a UN-HRC's meeting here.
It is inaccurate, and illegal as well, to describe this segment of people as "bedoon" (stateless) because they are officially referred to as "illegal residents," the Kuwaiti envoy made clear.
"The Nationality Act 15, for 1959, as well as the subsequent amendments outlines the regulations of naturalization in line with the laws in force in most countries of the world," Lt.-Col. Al-Waheeb pointed out.
"The number of illegal residents in Kuwait before the Iraqi invasion (1990) was estimated at 24,000, most of whom left for their original countries during the invasion. Others applied for leaving Kuwait voluntarily after the invasion.
"As Kuwait set up a special committee for tackling the situations of illegal residents in 1996, some 23,000 such people managed to correct their positions through a legal process. They were able to get passports of their original countries, thus acquiring the Kuwaiti residency," he went on to say.
The number of illegal residents in Kuwait at present is 93,334 people; they enjoy the services offered by the State of Kuwait, notably the healthcare fund.
The fund offers health service free of charge to 63,000 such persons; it spends some USD one million last year. The remaining illegal residents are eligible to free care on equal footing with the Kuwaiti citizens.
The state launched a fund for educational services which benefitted over 11,000 persons last year, more than a half of who were illegal residents. The fund spent up to USD 15 million last year, Lt.-Col. Al-Waheeb went on to say.
"Over the last decade up to 7,315 households of illegal residents have been naturalized in addition to their children," he noted.
The state offers to this segment of people housing welfare and social insurance as well as low-cost housing units to humanitarian cases, on equal footing with Kuwaiti citizens, Lt.-Col. Al-Waheeb added. Kuwait is one the 15 states which have their human rights records examined during UN-HRC's eight session (May 3-14) in the light of UN-HRC's Universal Periodic Review (UPR). - Kuna