Amnesty over: Still over a thousand illegals waiting for outpasses

The Indian Embassy and Consulate in UAE have issued nearly 5,500 outpasses to amnesty seekers over the past two month, said a senior official.

India’s Ambassador to the UAE MK Lokesh told Emirates 24|7 that the exact number of Indians left the country after availing amnesty would be released by the UAE authorities.

More than a thousand people were waiting since last night to get tokens for outpasses outside the Al Aweer Amnesty Center which was set up to cater to amnesty seekers. They were hoping that the amnesty deadline would be extended and they won’t have to face fine.

“We have issued around 5,500 outpasses during the amnesty scheme. The initial response was poor and the overall numbers, as expected, were not big,” Lokesh said, adding that the exact number of Indians who’ve left the country by availing amnesty would be released by the UAE government.

Anwar Taha, President of Kerala Muslim Cultural Center (KMCC), a socio-political group helping amnesty seekers, said: “We issued 23 air tickets today for the amnesty seekers. Overall, more than 100 air tickets have been issued to the needy amnesty seekers. These were issued mainly to people from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and other places. There are ten more days left to leave the country. More than 1,000 people are still waiting outside the amnesty counter in Al Aweer. We are advising people to stay there and take token numbers because the amnesty centre is full,” said Anwar Taha, President of Kerala Muslim Cultural Center (KMCC), a socio-political group helping amnesty seekers.

“These 23 tickets were issued today because many of them don’t have money to return home. Several people were promised tickets, but the actual number of tickets issued was not known,” Taha said.

“Two weeks ago only 2,000 Indians had availed amnesty scheme but the numbers have almost doubled in two weeks. We are offering jobs to amnesty seekers at the Confident Group through KMCC,” he said.

Confident Group offered jobs in India but many amnesty returnees seem not keen to return to construction jobs in India and want to come back to the Gulf.

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