Immigration officials have arrested two men, a Syrian and a Bangladeshi, in relation to respectively counterfeiting and using forged documents , in two separate operations. The investigations and arrests were led by Brigadier General Abdullah Al-Rashid, the head of the Immigration Investigation General Department.

The investigation into the Bangladeshi man's activities began after the department received a tip-off that the man, who was previously deported in 1992, had managed to return the country the following year using a forged passport, and had been working here ever since. After receiving the information, Brigadier-General Al-Rashid ordered the detention and questioning of the accused man.

On being arrested and questioned, the man told officials that he had indeed returned to the country in 1993 using a forged work visa, before buying a valid passport with a legitimate residency visa from a compatriot before having the photograph and details professionally altered. He admitted that in the 16 years since his return to Kuwait, he had regularly used the illegally amended passport to travel to and from his homeland without ever coming under suspicion, reported Al-Qabas.

After taking his testimony, the department officials contacted their counterparts at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), who confirmed that the accused man's fingerprints did not match those found at the home of the man the passport was originally issued for. The suspect has been sent to the Public Prosecutor's Department pending further investigation.

In the other case, immigration department officials began an investigation into the Syrian man's activities after receiving a tip-off about his activities. The investigators found out that the man was renting a business from a Kuwaiti man, and had established a fake company with which he had registered 27 expatriate worker's residencies.

When the culprit was arrested, he admitted that he had forged the work permits in cooperation with an Egyptian accomplice who had already left the country. He explained that he had used the fake company's license to trade in residency visas. The man has been referred to the Public Prosecution Department on charges of forging official documents and human trafficking.

Kuwait Times