Hassan Cheruppa

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH – The counter for stamping Indian consulate token on passports or emergency certificates of those Indians who did not make it earlier was a great relief for many who thronged the Jeddah Deportation Center (Tarheel) Tuesday. Many volunteers from the community helped the consulate officials issue tokens at counters on the Tarheel premises. More than 800 Indians had their biometric details recorded Tuesday, a day reserved for them at Tarheel. The process of fingerprinting continued until late hours of the day. During the previous two Tuesdays, there were unruly and a chaotic scenes, mainly attributed to the lack of proper arrangements to handle those thronging the center.  



The Tarheel authorities extended full cooperation and support to the consulate officials to get exit stamps for maximum number of Indians who opted to go home for good, Dr. Irshad Ahmad, consul for media affairs, told Saudi Gazette. “The token system worked very well and things moved very smoothly. People were cooperating with the system very much,” he said.

The consulate issued tokens to about 1,000 people for Tuesday. By 6.p.m. around 700 people managed to have fingerprinted. On earlier occasions, the number of those who finalized their travel documents by this time was more than 100, according to a community leader.



Several Indian workers praised the presence of Consul General Faiz Ahmed Kidwai at Tarheel for most part of the day where he remained in close touch with Tarheel officials, including its Director Col. Mishal Al-Harthy.



Kabeer Kondotty of India Fraternity Forum, said that Kidwai’s presence was a great relief, especially volunteers assisting the consulate officials. Hundreds of Indians thronged Tarheel without having the consulate sticker on their passports or ECs. The counter, which was set up outside Tarheel, has issued stickers to them, and many of them took advantage of this to complete their return procedures Tuesday itself, said Kabeer.



Deal on domestic workers



Talks on concluding an agreement to recruit Indian domestic workers to Saudi Arabia have concluded in New Delhi. Both sides agreed all aspects related to protecting rights of both employers and workers. “Labor ministers of Saudi Arabia and India will sign the agreement in the coming months,” said Dr. Ahmad Al-Fuhaid, Deputy Minister of Labor (international affairs), who headed the Saudi delegation  .