A number of Indian workers had their biometric details recorded yesterday at the crowded Jeddah deportation center, the final step needed for them to go home.
However, over 15,000 Indian workers still have to register their details by July 3, the end of the three-month grace period for workers to either rectify their status and stay in the country or apply for final exit visas.
The long and exhausting day for workers and officials started at 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning and ended at 3 a.m. yesterday morning.
Sources said that only 40 people were able to record their details by 4 p.m. but the process then speeded up until the center closed. Tuesdays have been allocated for Indians to record their biometric details at the center. Other weekdays are allocated for workers from other countries.
The Indian Consulate had sent a team to assist workers comprising consuls Raj Kumar and Irshad Ali and five employees who worked throughout the day.
There had been chaos at the center earlier this week with only a few counters operating for thousands of workers.
On Monday, Indian Consul General Faiz Ahmed Kidwai visited the deportation center and met with its director Col. Meshal Al-Harithy to ensure the center could provide services for more Indian applicants.
During his visit, Kidwai had also found some expatriates paying SR 50 to SR 100 for exit forms printed in Arabic. He arranged for the Indian Embassy to provide the forms free of charge.
Indian worker Mohammed Saleem said he arrived at 5 a.m. and was allowed in at 7 a.m. Officials only opened the counters at 10 a.m.
Mohammed Makki who came along with his wife and two children, Arkan and Masia, told Arab News that he was grateful that Indian consulate officials were present to help him.
A cheerful Makki said he was wrongly labeled as a runaway or huroob worker by his employer. He was now able to go home with his wife and children and perhaps return to Saudi Arabia in future.
Another "runaway worker," Srinivas Naik, said Indian officials helped him when he fainted in the hot sun at the deportation center.
Applicant Raheem Ansari said he had visited the deportation center for three days in a row but was "surprised" to see Indian Consulate officials at the center helping workers fill in the Arabic forms and guiding them to counters.
Two applicants, Sarabjit Singh and Bhoopender Singh, who had waited at the center since early Tuesday morning, left early yesterday exhausted but happy. "If the Indian Consulate team was not there we would have been turned away,” he said.
Indian officials earn kudos from expats
