Outpass applications to be accepted until August 13

Dubai/Abu Dhabi: The Indian consulate and embassy in the UAE will not accept applications for emergency certificates after August 13, said a consulate official yesterday.

Delivery of all Emergency Certificates (ECs) will be completed by August 20 and the amnesty operations currently held at the Indian High School in Dubai and Indian Association in Sharjah will come to an end.

"It takes about five days to process one emergency certificate and the cut off date for receiving applications for emergency certificates was fixed based on the enormous rush of amnesty seekers," said B.S. Mubarak, Indian Labour Consul.

The ongoing three-month amnesty was declared by the UAE cabinet on June 1 and will end on September 2. The previous amnesty was in January 2003 and went on for a period of six months.

As of yesterday, the consulate has received over 34,500 applications for ECs. It has printed over 26,500 ECs and delivered 21,000 ECs. Out of the 40,000 passports of Indian nationals received from the immigration authorities around 16,800 passports have been distributed to the public.

Similarly the Indian embassy officials in Abu Dhabi said that they had received around 1,800 applications for outpasses and prepared about 1,300. About 800 outpasses have been issued as of Wednesday and applicants are yet to come and collect the rest of the 500.

The embassy has distributed about 2,300 passports out of 15,000 handed over by the naturalisation and residency officials.

Contrary to the expectation of a last minute rush, there is a slump in the number of amnesty seekers this week, said officials.

About 100 people turn up a day whereas more than 500 people used to approach the embassy daily two weeks ago, added the officials.

Air tickets

"There will be no point in issuing an EC after August 25 as it is most unlikely for the amnesty seeker to purchase an air ticket. The rush will be enormous. We will be announcing the deadline for receiving EC applications at all our amnesty centres opened in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.

"It will also help us to minimise the rush of applicants during the last weeks of amnesty," said Mubarak. An Indian amnesty seeker however said the deadline for ECs should be extended until August 25 as it will give them a couple of weeks more to earn money.

Rajesh Pandey, a worker from the North Indian state of Bihar, said that many of his friends at work who are illegal residents will only approach the consulate for an EC in the last week of August.

He said: "There is a rush at the amnesty centre opened by the Indian consulate. I went there once to apply for an EC but went back after seeing the crowd. I will get a couple of more weeks to earn some more money." Pandey who works as a helper at a construction site in Dubai earns Dh6 on an hourly basis.

- Additional inputs by Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter