DUBAI, November 6: Kuwait has become the latest Gulf country to offer an amnesty for illegal expatriates, giving them 40 days till December 15 to leave the country without paying any penalties.

Thousands of foreigners of various nationalities, including many Indians, staying illegally in the country are expected to take advantage of the opportunity and return home during this period.

There are some 250,000 Indians living in Kuwait, but Indian officials said they had no figures for those staying in the country illegally.

``We will have to wait and see...We will be in touch with the Kuwaiti authorities,'' they said.

But they did not expect the numbers to be as high as those in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), from where thousands of illegal Indians have returned home in recent times after availing of similar amnesty offers.

An official statement said Kuwaiti Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al Khaled Al Sabah had issued an order allowing foreigners without residence permits and those whose papers had expired to leave the country before December 15.It said illegal expatriates could leave the country from any exit point without the normal pre-requisite of an exit permit.

But the amnesty does not apply to expatriates who have been offically banned from leaving the country by a court or by the interior ministry, it said.

More than 40,000 Indians availed of a similar amnesty offered by Saudi Arabia for three months till October 16 this year. In all, more than 100,000 people of various nationalities are understood to have left the kingdom.

More than 2,500 Indians have so far taken exit papers from the Indian embassy in Manama after the Bahraini government gave three months till October 31 to allow illegal expatriates to legalise their status or leave the country. The amnesty has now been extended by a month till November 30. Last year, some 120,000 people, including about 60,000 Indians, left the UAE during a three-month amnesty.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.