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Little rush among Indians to use UAE amnesty By Mridula Krishna, Indo-Asian news Service Dubai, Jan 27 (IANS) Nearly a month has passed since the United Arab Emirates (UAE) offered amnesty to illegal immigrants to return, but Indian immigrants seem reluctant to avail themselves of the facility. The amnesty provision will allow illegal immigrants to leave the UAE without facing punishment or a fine. The facility extends till April 30. About 35,000 to 40,000 illegal immigrants from India are expected to leave the country during the four-month amnesty period, compared to 50,000 in 1996. But so far the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi has received only 405 applications and the Consulate General of India in Dubai has got 563 applications from Indian nationals seeking the issue of travel documents for them to use the facility. Urging immigrants to apply at the earliest, Indian Ambassador K.C. Singh said special guidelines have been prepared for them to obtain travel documents from the embassy and consulate, and exit clearance from the UAE Immigration Office. The ambassador said there were plans to start consular visits to remote areas like Ruwais and Liwa to interview applicants there. Separate amnesty cells have been set up at the embassy and the consulate to process applications for the issue of travel documents to amnesty seekers who do not possess valid travel documents. Consul General George Joseph said that volunteers of various Indian associations would assist the immigrants in filling up the application forms free of cost, at the embassy and registered premises. The Indian diplomat pointed out that separate Air-India counters have begun functioning from the embassy and consulate for reservations and to issue air tickets at concessional rates to those wishing to benefit from the amnesty. Indian Airlines and Air-India have announced a 20 percent discount on the prices of one-way tickets from the UAE to different points in India for amnesty seekers. The fares will remain valid up to April 30, the last date for amnesty. K. Shyam Sundar, UAE manager of Indian Airlines, said new amnesty prices would be valid in Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Kozhikode, Chennai, Kochi, Coimbatore, New Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Trichy and Thiruvananthapuram. In Dubai the Indian Community Welfare Association is raising money from corporates and individuals to pay for tickets of some immigrants, said Joseph. The Arab Gulf Cooperation Council states are working hard to cut their dependence on expatriates through their jobs-for-nationals programmes. But it seems like these states will have to continue their reliance on foreign workers for the next one or two decades. The council states now have a combined population of around 27 million, of which expatriates account for 35 percent overall. In the UAE and Qatar their population is as high as 75 percent. Bahrain has 30 percent expatriates, while they account for 56 percent in Kuwait and 27 percent in Oman and Saudi Arabia. --Indo-Asian News Service
