Manama: Police at Kuwait airport have arrested three Syrians as they attempted to leave the country with fake Bulgarian passports.
The false documents used by a mother and her two children were discovered following a close scrutiny by the passport officers, security sources told local daily Al Rai.
The mother reportedly told the airport police officers that her passport had given her the passports that he had bought to enable the family to leave Kuwait. She added that the husband promised to join them within one month.
Using the details taken from his wife, the husband was arrested and referred to a police station in Kuwait City.
He corroborated the information provided by his wife and said that he wanted the family to leave Kuwait and move to Europe where they would start a new life, particularly that the situation in their home country was dramatic.
He added that he thought the Bulgarian passports would help them turn their plan into reality.
The Syrian man provided information to the police about the man from whom he had purchased the fake passports and an arrest warrant was issued.
The Syrian family members were referred to the competent authorities pending further investigations, the sources said.
Around 130,000 Syrians are believed to live in Kuwait and the decision by Syria to shut down its embassy in Kuwait City in March 2012, alongside its diplomatic mission in the Saudi capital Riyadh, caused a major problem for those who needed to renew their passports in order to be able to extend their residency visas in Kuwait and avoid turning into illegal residents.
The embassy was re-opened in January to provide consular services.
Kuwait shut its embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus and recalled all diplomats and other staffers in March 2012.
A foreign ministry official at the time said that the decision was in line with the stances of the other member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) towards the deteriorating security situation in Syria.
