Gulf states consider medical test to detect gay travellers before they enter the country

KUWAIT'S director of public health says a new medical test will be used to detect homosexual travellers so they can be barred from entering the country.

A medical test would 'detect' gay travellers before they could enter Gulf states, where homosexuality is illegal.

HEALTH officials in Kuwait claim the country will soon introduce a medical test to detect gay travellers before they can enter the country.

Laws in the Gulf Co-operation Countries - Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - already ban gay acts and the controversial stance is being toughened.

Details of the medical examination are not yet known, but Kuwait's director of pubic health Yousouf Mindkar insists they are coming, the Daily Mail reports.

Foreigners coming into the GCC countries are already given a routine health check, but it will soon include tests to detect LGBT people, who will then be turned away from the borders.

"Health centres conduct the routine medical check to assess the health of the expatriates when they come into the GCC countries," Mr Mindkar told Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai.

"However, we will take stricter measures that will help us detect gays who will be then barred from entering Kuwait or any of the GCC member states."

Gulf states have a shameful history of anti-gay intolerance. Homosexual acts are banned in all the GCC member countries.

In Kuwait, people involved in a homosexual acts can receive up to 10 years in jail if they are under 21.

In Saudi Arabia, homosexuality is punishable by death.