i n honor of the reputation of more than fifty countries, and for other reasons, the state allows the citizens of these countries to avail visas on arrival at any point of entry. i do not know about the situation at the land and sea ports, but i know for sure that the citizens of these countries over the years have not been treated with respect at the airport, and there have been many complaints that employees at the airport visa section are either not in their places or busy eating breakfast or suhoor or gulping tea. as a result the citizens of these countries have to wait for long time. it is either this, or the photocopying machine does not work or has run out of paper. add to this the unavailability of a local currency exchange machine to pay the visa fee, which is worthless in value, and other bad services offered to people whom we have honored by giving them visa on arrival. a few days ago, i personally accompanied a canadian who arrived with me from bangkok at 3:30 am to the visa section and i found some negative things which i had expected and other things better than expected. on the next morning, i immediately contacted the assistant undersecretary for ports affairs, major-general mansour al-awadhi, and explained the matter to him. when i visited him upon an invitation, he informed me of many obstacles that he faces because of the enormous shortcomings and flaws that exist in the current airport building, which cause trouble for anyone who would like to develop the system. i have seen the great efforts he is making to develop his department and improve the capabilities of its officers and military personnel in various security activities, not only preparing them for the new airport buildings soon, including the building of al-jazeera airways, but also improving the security of the current airport despite all obstacles, and after years of security chaos that may have allowed many of those wanted by law to escape through the airport, and i thank him. my visit, and the serious work i saw, in the development area and training young military cadres have distanced many of my fears. i wish his excellency the minister of interior will overcome the obstacles facing the security authorities at the airport, and request the senior officials of directorategeneral of civil aviation to cooperate more closely with the security aspect at the ports administration and facilitate the process of obtaining the visa on arrival as soon as possible, and provide bill boards and other necessary issues. we also commend what colleague abdullah al-najjar said about majorgeneral mansour al-awadhi, about tightening the noose on forgers and holders of dual nationalities, when he issued a circular, in conjunction with the issuance of epassport to the citizens and after taking fingerprints of all, in which he explained the need to notify the central administration to implement the entry and exit procedures by providing the names of gcc citizens who are found to have a nationality other than their original nationalities in order to be able to put an alert in their database in public interest. al-najjar added after obtaining the fingerprints of all and after the end of the period of change of passports for all kuwaitis, this will be followed by comparing all those who obtained passports with statements issued by the gulf countries through the exchange of security information provided in the treaties concluded earlier, and then the forgers and holders of dual nationalities will be identified and their kuwaiti citizenship will be withdrawn. it may be a dream, but i am happy with it, and it will only come true through determination and sincere intentions.
