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Illegals urged to take amnesty seriously

ABU DHABI - The Indian embassy has reiterated its plea to amnesty-seekers to take the opportunity seriously and leave the country before the cut-off date, which is March 31.

It will take at least two weeks for the embassy to verify the beneficiary's background and follow-up action before issuing the outpass, the embassy said.

"It's not a hard and fast rule that they should make use of the offer before March 31, but doing so will help in good measure to pace out the procedures," an official said.

The embassy is receiving 35 to 40 applications daily from amnesty-seekers and has so far issued over 1,000 outpasses.

The general amnesty was declared in January and expires in April. It is difficult to comment on the status of the response, as it is widely believed that there are not as many illegal residents or overstayers in the country as there were in 1996 when the first amnesty was declared.

"However, it is more or less according to our expectations," the official said. The initial turnout was lower than expected, but it is picking up with the passage of time and is expected to peak during the final phase.

With all arrangements well in place, the mission is also in touch with the Indian community's socio-cultural organisations to spread the word for people to utilise the offer. A team from the embassy also pays regular visits to Al Ain, where the response has been good with 40 to 45 cases taken up every week, the official said. "Further, there has not been a single case reported so far where people have come to us asking for tickets citing financial problems," he said.

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