Hassan Cheruppa Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Indian Consul General Faiz Ahmed Kidwai thanked the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for the extension of the amnesty in a bid to complete the consulate's Herculean task of regulating the status of around one million Indians living in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia. In an interview with Saudi Gazette, Kidwai said that he expects the authorities would take some quick steps to make this tremendous mission a great success by solving some pressing issues. “Increase staffers and computers at the Deportation Center (Tarheel) plus the allotted time for each country. Also, come out with a way to address the problem of people without any original documents as well as the cases of those who are desperately in need of help due to obstacles created by their individual sponsors,” he said while adding that these matters were taken up during discussions with the Passport officials, and will be raised again. Referring to the first phase of the amnesty period, Kidwai said: “Initially, we had a tough time to tackle with large number of people thronging the consulate in order to settle their matters. We then instantly swung into action to work out some systematic arrangements. Accordingly, we have set up help desks and streamlined the process. We started accepting applications for emergency certificates (EC), issuing ECs, and tackling numerous problems with the involvement of the members of the community. We could manage things properly and now everything is smooth at the consulate.” Issues hampering status correction Kidwai said: “The main problem that we have seen was that there is a large number of people who need help but the insufficient time (every Tuesday) and tardiness at Tarheel make things difficult. “We realize the fact that the Tarheel officials have their own constrains as they have to deal with so many countries and they cannot attend people from all countries altogether. “As of July 17, the consulate had received a total of 23,849 EC applications, of which 22,550 ECs were issued. So far, the number of those who have been fingerprinted is more than 6,200 of which we managed to get exit stamp for around 4,000. “Over 2,000 cases are still pending, in addition to fingerprinting of another 5,000 for whom tokens have already been issued. “To find a solution for this, the authorities should at least follow the example of Riyadh apart from increasing manpower and machines. “In Riyadh, they have worked out a system for those who have their Iqama and entry numbers and who have been finger printed earlier. Under this system, the Passport Department has designated a place where they can have their final exit without approaching Tarheel. “In Ramadan, fingerprinting work is only done during the night. Earlier we were getting over 20 hours on our designated day but now only about four hours, from 11 pm - 3 am. “On the first Tuesday in Ramadan, those fingerprinted were only 170, in place of more than 800 before Ramadan. There is a huge backlog and that needs to be cleared. Last Tuesday, we called up 400 people who had obtained tokens earlier but more than 1,000 people came. This means that there is an anxiety to go back fast. “Many want to join their families before Eid Al-Fitr. But the final exit procedures are lagging. One month after Ramadan, Haj flights will start and we will be preoccupied with Haj operations also. Coinciding of Haj and amnesty is really a cause of concern as we will be very busy with Haj flights and other details. Anyhow, we will try to manage the two together.”
Drawing attention to other difficulties, Kidwai said: “We have also to tackle with a large number of people who do not have any document either Iqama or any entry number, and there is no solution for their problems till now. “We demanded the Passport officials at Tarheel that they should consider this issue seriously and come out with a solution. Also, there are some people who are not covered under amnesty, especially those who have been reported “Huroob (runaway)” after declaration of amnesty. “There are large numbers of people who are unaware of their sponsors. Even if they wanted to go back to their sponsors, they have neither any contact number nor any clue about their whereabouts. “There are no solutions in their cases right now. There are people who know sponsors but they demand huge amount of money for release. In such cases, the role of consulate is very limited, and hence some urgent solutions are needed to address these problems.” 500-hour for finding placements Kidwai claimed that the consulate has made remarkable achievements with regard to finding suitable placements for a large number of unregulated nationals. “Apart from holding two job fairs, we were able to make it a daily event. There are a large number of companies whose representatives are coming to us seeking manpower. “Initially, we put up this on our website and notice board. We found that most of the people who are coming to the consulate have very limited accessibility to the Internet and they did not look at our website. “As their education level is low, they are not in a position to search for a company, register their names and find a job. So we requested companies to come and sit in the consulate premises so that they can directly interview these people,” he said. Kidwai added that on an average eight to 10 companies were sitting here daily before Ramadan, interviewing suitable candidates from among 2,000 - 3,000 people who come to the consulate daily. Each company managed to shortlist 100-150 people a day, and they could hire even 50-60 percent of these people. This process started one month before other consulates followed. “We made it a daily event from May 7 onwards. Normally, at job fairs we get five to six hours. But here we have about 10 hours daily. This means that over the last 50 days, we got a total of over 500 hours. I presume that 7,000 - 8,000 people have been benefited from this. Apart from this, the consulate has conducted two big job fairs, and around 4,000 people were offered jobs in the fair. We also have plans to continue job fair in Ramadan if there is a demand for it. We approached some companies and after knowing their response and the number of companies that are lined up for this, we will take a decision. If the demand is less, we will do it immediately after Ramadan. There are almost 7,000 people who have applied for EC but did not show up to take it. This means that they have either got a job or a sponsorship transfer.” Help desks for multiple services Kidwai spoke about a host of services being rendered by the consulate during the amnesty period. “We operate 17 desks to offer different services. We offer whatever services that we can, either related to us or related to the ministries of interior and labor. “Suppose if one wants to check whether he is on a huroob list, he can check it from here free of cost. Around 500-600 people use this facility on a daily basis and taking a printout free of cost,” he said. The Interior Ministry website has a facility to check the entry number. “We also introduced this facility. We have set up a desk for surrendered passports where we received 8,500 Huroob passports from authorities, of which almost 4,000 were collected by its holders. The status correction procedures are progressing well at all outstations including Madinah, Abha, Najran and Jazan, Kidwai said. However, we face some problems at Qunfuda and Bisha stations. Hurry up, finish rectification Kidwai urged the community members to hurry up to finish their correction procedures or leave the Kingdom for good. “Please don't wait for the last moment. Get your paper work done and take a token to Tarheel. When you are called, please come and don't lose your chance. Once you get exit stamp and passport back, you should go as soon as possible, instead of waiting,” he said. According to Kidwai, many undocumented people are thinking that they can wait until the last moment and then go back. Exit stamp has one month validity and they should travel within this period. The consul general also spoke about the ongoing efforts to get discounted air tickets. The embassy is following up this matter, and Air India officials have already informed that they will arrange special aircraft if there is a demand. “We made a request for it. If anyone is not getting a ticket, then he can approach our Community Welfare Department and register names so that we can ask Air India to issue a ticket. We need at least 300 such registrations to request for a special flight. If there is a demand, then we can also explore the prospect of using returning Haj flights for their return,” Kidwai further said. Kidwai said that the consulate's routine jail visit program is affected by amnesty. Now we are holding most of the visits within Jeddah and not outside. “We have made a formal request to the Ministry of Foreign to include many Indian prisoners, who have already served their jail terms, in the list of the royal amnesty in the holy month,” he said, adding that they have presented a list of prisoners who need to be considered for release.
