Kuwaiti citizens selling property to avoid DNA testing

A recent spike in real estate sales in Jahra, Ahmadi and Farwaniya governorates in Kuwait is being attributed to owners’ fears of being forced to undergo mandatory DNA tests.

Kuwait Times cites real estate sources as saying the increase in sales over the last three months was from owners looking to avoid the test to obtain a new electronic passport.

Many are believed to have obtained Kuwaiti citizenship through forgery or by providing false data, according to the publication.

Current sale prices are described as being much less than actual prices.

“It is as if they want to get rid of the house as soon as possible,” the sources said, suggesting the owners wanted to leave the country.

The country’s interior ministry believes more than 250,000 Kuwaitis will not undergo DNA tests to obtain new electronic passports, even though failure to do so will mean losing their citizenship, job, housing and other privileges, according to the publication.

The DNA testing law as passed in July 2015 and requires blood or saliva samples to be stored in a lab at the General Department of Criminal Evidence in Dajeej.

Expats and visitors to the country will also need to provide DNA samples to the government.

Al-Shahed newspaper recently reported that Kuwait’s population suddenly increased after its liberation from Iraq in February 1991.

Much of the increase has been attributed to fraudulent activity during the Gulf war. Kuwait’s population has risen from 650,000 before the invasion to 1.3 million today.