Five-year-old twins grounded as their visas bear same number

A father has said he has been treated "unfairly" by being refused permission to fly from Sharjah airport with his identical twin sons because of an apparent visa irregularity.

Immigration officials said Sriniwasan Gopal, 40, from India, could not take his two little boys Arun and Varun to their home country because their visa numbers were the same.

Gopal insists the five-year-olds have been allowed to travel before before despite having the same visa number in different passports.

The Dubai resident went to Sharjah airport on Thursday to fly on a budget airline to Mumbai, India, where he was due to visit his mother Meena, 74, and have medical treatment for a hand problem.

However, after he checked in and his luggage was loaded on board the airliner, Gopal was told by immigration officials that the boys must have different visa numbers.

"My ageing mother is waiting for us in Mumbai. I think the immigration authorities should have taken a humanitarian view but instead they said go back to Dubai and get these things rectified. It's totally unfair," he said.

Gopal, a sales manager, said he was told when the visas were issued in Dubai that as his sons were born on the same day they could have the same visa number even though each has his own passport.

"For five years my sons have been travelling in and out of this country on the same visa number and file number.

"In April they went from Dubai to Mumbai and they have been to Oman and back as well.

"Now suddenly they cannot travel. It is as though each emirate is interpreting the rules differently," he said.

Gopal's wife Nandini, 36, and the couple's daughter Nikita, eight, who is disabled, were not travelling with him.

Gopal said he will have to pay Dh150 per ticket to change the date when he flies out, assuming he can sort out the problems with immigration.

Lieutenant Colonel Salem Saif Al Suwaidi, Director-General of Sharjah Naturalisation and Residency Department, said: "If each child has his own passport, he should have a different visa and a different visa number."

He said these rules applied across the UAE and not just Sharjah.