Calm returns to key offices

The smiles are back, the atmosphere more relaxed, traffic on the roads is near normal and even parking lots in and around the passport offices and deportation centers wear a deserted look.
This was the scenario in Jeddah yesterday, a day after Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah announced a four-month extension of the grace period for illegal expats to either rectify their employment status or exit the Kingdom.
The hullabaloo witnessed in the past three months, the long queues seen in different government offices, and the hectic work schedules for all concerned — be they the consulates of various countries or officials in labor and passport offices and deportation centers — have been replaced by welcome calm.
Neither officials nor expatriates are a harried lot now, with time on their side to sort out issues.
Diplomats of various countries also heaved a sigh of relief, after having gone through a punishing time in the past three months. Most of them said that hardly any illegal workers came to them in connection with the grace period, and those who were there had come for passport renewal or for travel documents, as a result of which they could pay attention to other consular duties.
There was a drastic drop in the number of expatriates and their Saudi employers or representatives today at labor and passport offices in Jeddah. The roads leading to these offices in Baghdadia district’s Abdullah Al-Balkhair Street, commonly known as Kandarah, was calm with easy vehicular movement and fewer people. Traffic police force that used to control mammoth vehicular passage during the first phase of the amnesty period in the area was missing.
Speaking to Arab News, Aftab A. Khokher, the Pakistani consul general, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the Indian consul general, Adambawa Uthumalebbe, the Sri Lankan consul general, Mohammad Nazmul Islam, the Bangladeshi consul general, and Nur Ibrahim, the Indonesian vice consul for information and culture, were unanimous that pressure of work had drastically dropped.
“The past two weeks were particularly tough, but now the consulate is back to its normal functioning. We haven’t started fresh registrations which is why there is hardly any crowd,” Nur Ibrahim said, adding that the extension was all the more appreciable since the scorching summer heat was a major problem for all expat workers.
Pointing out that the Indonesian expats were very happy to continue working in Saudi Arabia during Ramadan and Haj, he said: “We are, however, focused on helping our people get their rectification and paperwork done on time.”
Kidwai said: “What remains to be seen now is the labor authorities’ handling of the situation during Ramadan for expats who either want to correct their job status or take the exit route. The main issue is to get over the hurdle of the biometric process and ensure that it runs smoothly.”
Uthumalebbe said there was no pressure at the consulate anymore. “We worked round the clock in the last few weeks and were under tremendous pressure. Now, we started all our regular services and have also gone back to our regular timings.” On how the consulate intended to utilize the breather, he said the consulate planned to divide the Sri Lankan expats into groups of 300 and issue them tokens. “Only these 300 people will visit the Passport Department and finish their work,” he said.
Mohammad Nazmul Islam said the Bangladeshi Consulate will continue to work day and night if the situation so demanded, but with the numbers coming down, the consuls were much more relaxed.
Aftab Khokher said the Pakistani consulate was back to its regular office timings after the hectic schedule they had followed in the past few weeks. He urged Pakistani expatriates to complete their work on time and not wait till the last minute.
On the flip side, the extension had its impact on some small businesses. With the long queues at the passport office gone, private service agents who used to sit opposite the office had very few clients. These agents who helped expatriates by filling out forms, pulled down shutters by afternoon for lack of work.