The United Arab Emirates government has granted two months grace period to illegal expatriates — mostly Indians — who were unable to leave the country.
DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates government has granted two months grace period to illegal expatriates — mostly Indians — who were unable to leave the country due to non-availability of flights.
The three-month amnesty, announced by the UAE Government in July will end as scheduled on September 3 and, according a senior cabinet minister, there will be no extension of the amnesty.
The grace period can be utilised by only by those illegal expatriates who have completed the immigration clearance and other formalities by September 3, when the three-month amnesty period is scheduled to end.
Dr Ali al Kaabi, UAE’s Minister of Labour, said that there has been no cabinet decision on the extension of the amnesty.
The Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate in Dubai have welcomed the grace period and said it would help those stranded without air tickets.
“We welcome the decision of the UAE government. We have been experiencing a crunch and have been trying to resolve the issue,” India’s consul general Venu Rajamony said. Thousands of Indians, especially from Andhra Pradesh, would have been stranded in the UAE if not for the extension.
Mohammed Ali Shabbir, an Andhra minister who was scheduled to visit the UAE to study the situation last week, had to postpone the trip due to the twin blasts in Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, airline officials in the country welcomed the government decision and said it would ease pressure on the airlines.
2-mnth grace for illegal workers in UAE
Indian Airlines officials in Dubai confirmed that all flights to Andhra were running full capacity. “All flights to Andhra are full. In fact we are diverting passengers to other sectors like Pune and Mumbai and arranging connecting flights to Andhra at no extra cost. We have even requested for several additional flights,” country manager of Indian Airlines, Anand Pandey, said.
“This will definitely ease pressure on the airlines and we are happy to extend the special amnesty fares until the end of the grace period,” said Pandey.
The UAE government had asked the 350,000 illegal immigrants, majority of them Indians, to leave the country during the amnesty. However, according to sources in the interior ministry only 200,000 have so far applied for amnesty.
Meanwhile, Indians have been crowding immigration centres to complete the formalities before September 3. On Tuesday alone about 5,000 illegals gathered at Indian High School in Sharjah which has been converted into a makeshift immigration office.
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