Kuwait has deported 20,000 expatriates in the first nine months of the year for their non-compliance with the residence and labour laws, a report said.

Some 7,000 more expatriates will be deported when paper work regarding their situation and their sponsors is completed, the Gulf News reported, citing security sources as telling Kuwaiti daily Al Seyassah.

“Those who were expelled from the country are from various nationalities and included expatriates without jobs or doing odd jobs, beggars and people implicated in the selling of alcoholic beverages, managing flats for suspicious activities or engaging in immoral acts,” security sources said. “The public order department has pledged a zero-tolerance towards all violations of the law and involvement in illegal or immoral activities.”

“They are in the police custody now and their sponsors have been called to pay for their return tickets and settle all pending issues with their employers. They are expected to be deported within days,” the sources added.

The action must be extended to include those who traded in visas and exploited the system; the report quoted some legal experts as saying.