Hassan Cheruppa

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH – New Delhi will operate additional flights to repatriate illegal Indian nationals who wish to return home for good, Indian Consul General Faiz Ahmed Kidwai has said.



“The embassy has taken up the issue with the Indian authorities, and accordingly Air India, the national flag carrier, has expressed its readiness to operate flights. If there are many people who are ready to go but there are no seats available, then we will arrange additional flights,” he said.



Kidwai was addressing leaders and members of the community as well as media persons at a specially convened meeting at International Indian School Jeddah (Boys’ Section) Sunday. The meeting was convened to update the community members about the amnesty related details as well as to seek their cooperation to take advantage of the grace period to the maximum before the expiry of the July 3 deadline. He urged all illegal nationals to register their names without wasting any more time. “Seize the golden opportunity either to correct the work and residency status or leave the Kingdom before the deadline. First register at the embassy or consulate to avoid any penal action,” he said.



Kidwai noted that many countries are asking for extension of the grace period. “On the contrary, we are not asking for it but instead we are concentrating on doing our job of facilitating the return of undocumented workers before the expiry of the deadline.” Replying to a question from a woman community member with regard to a newspaper report about the move to allow legal and qualified dependents of expatriates to work in the education sector,  Kidwai said that there has so far been no official word on the issue. “If no directives have come from the concerned authorities before July 3, female teachers are advised not to continue working,” he said.



Kidwai said that as of June 15 the consulate has received 21,600 Emergency Certificates (EC) applications. “We have so far prepared 15,500 ECs, of which over 9000 were distributed. The Saudi authorities handed over 8,300 passports of Indian nationals, and out of them over 3,000 have been distributed.” He said that a total of 3,500 undocumented people have been fingerprinted on four Tuesdays allotted for Indians at the deportation center (Tarheel) and out of these, 1,300 got exit stamps. Kidwai said the consulate has no exact figures about the number of those who left the Kingdom by taking advantage of the amnesty.



He thanked the community members and volunteers for their support to the consulate officials in facilitating the procedures. “I am thanking you for the support in terms of distributing free food packets at Tarheel besides distributing a total of 20,000 bottles of water in the consulate premises,” he said.