http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2012/06/20/fraudsters-lure-bedoons-with-foreign-passports/
Fraudsters lure bedoons with ‘foreign’ passports
KUWAIT: Investigating on what is known as ‘Eritrean and Dominican bedoons’, informed security sources said that there are hundreds of former bedoons who have legalized their status by acquiring passports from these countries between 1998-2006. The sources added that some local commercial offices mediated between the diplomats from those countries and interested bedoons.
The sources added that recently, many bedoons have become victims of fraudsters-claiming to be acquiring passports from some African countries. One of these offices has online adverts describing it as ‘the official agent for Ghana’s economic normalization program’, offering passport issue services for $15,000. Seven people have been arrested in this regard.
One of the victims said he was swindled in 2011 by an Arab man in one of those offices. He added that he paid KD 2,400 for two Dominican passports -for him and his wife in addition to KD 600 for each of his three kids. He said that he paid half of the total sum in advance. “Two months later, I found out that the office had been closed down with no traces of any of its staff”, the man said.
Meanwhile, the embassy of Eritrea in Kuwait has stressed that all Eritrean passports held by former bedoons were authentic and had been legally issued.
Received on Thu Jun 21 2012 - 13:02:06 EDT
