The Riyadh Tarheel (deportation center) Office has asked expatriate workers seeking to be repatriated to go to the airport in within five days to obtain an exit-only visa. However, there are no government personnel on duty to stamp exit visas at the airport.
“Indians, Indonesians and nationals of other countries are following the advice of Tarheel officers by going to the airport for exit stamping. Officers tell them to go back to the Tarheel office after obtaining a boarding pass at the immigration counter,” he said.
“The immigration department is supposed to give clear instructions to helpless deportees,” he said.
On Friday, a Tarheel officer said, “we have given final-exit stamps to workers on their passport or emergency travel certificates.”
“Workers need not show they have an air ticket to get an exit stamp but have to ensure they leave by the end of the three-month grace period.”
Muhammad Rasheed, a Bengali national, said: “I went to the airport as advised by deportation center authorities for a final-exit visa. I got my boarding pass and checked in my baggage. When I approached the immigration counter, the officer told me to go back to the deportation center.”
Many others have faced the same problems at King Khaled International Airport. They could not travel, their tickets were canceled and their baggage got lost.
Another Indian, Muhammad Riaz, told Arab News that his passport was stamped with an exit visa the Tarheel office, but an immigration officer at the airport told him that his information “is not available in our system.”
“I have encountered many difficulties in the Kingdom,” Riaz said. “I got money from my hometown to buy a ticket, but these officers who are supposed to follow the royal order are not helping,” he said. He said immigration officers told him to pay SR 1,000.
Tarheel Office giving wrong instructions to deportees
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