DUBAI Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries have started applying a law that bans expatriates deported from any of the six countries from entering the rest of them, according to Manafez Dubai, the official newsletter of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs Dubai (GDRFA).
A report in its September issue of the newsletter said the new law is based on the GCC security pact. “Moreover, the country which deports an expatriate will be allowed to take the deportee’s fingerprints and share the information with the rest of the GCC countries,” it said.
It said the GCC countries are coordinating efforts to control drugs with exchanges of information, including names of smugglers, their modus operandi and data.
Case to case
O.V. Musthafa Zafeer of Musthafa & Almana International Legal Consultants said: “The GCC-wide entry ban for deported expats is not automatic, except in drug-related cases. Otherwise, it is applied on a case-to-case basis.”
Tina Thapar of Al Midfa & Associates said: “The security pact of 1994 was amended in 2012 and thereafter implemented for major crimes such as drugs, money laundering, murder etc.”
Citing some cases, she said a man implicated in a drug case in Saudi Arabia was deported from the UAE without a trial based on the judgment issued by the Saudi court. Another man in South Africa, who defaulted on alimony in the UAE, wanted to relocate to Bahrain. He had read about the GCC law, so he found out if there was an arrest warrant against him in the UAE and got his name cleared before flying to Bahrain.
