Saturday 07 / December / 2024
Muscat: Indian nationals leaving Oman for good under the Ministry of Labour’s repatriation scheme will be provided free emergency certificates to travel, if they don’t have valid passports.
Speaking to Times TV, Munu Mahawar, the Ambassador of India to Oman, urged expats who wished to leave under this measure to register soon, owing to the time taken to process applications. The scheme, which allows foreign workers to leave the country without paying any labour-related fines, is open until 31 December.
“An emergency certificate is required for those who do not have valid travel documents: if their passport has expired, they have lost their passport, or they are not in a position to reclaim their passport, as well as if they were issued some travel documents in the past that are no longer valid,” he said. “The embassy normally charges a fee of OMR6 as well as some additional charges, but we have done away with this.
“If a person goes to the embassy, the Ministry of Labour website or the Sanad offices, it takes about five to seven working days for the ministry to give its clearance,” the ambassador added. “Once given, we ask Indian nationals to approach any of the visa collection centres, where we are able to issue them emergency certificates within one or two days.
“They then have to get a COVID test done and buy an air ticket so they can travel,” he went on to say. “I would say all in all, it should be possible for a person to complete all the formalities in about two weeks. There is no prior appointment required – you can walk in, and emergency certificates can be provided free of charge.
“When I refer to this two week period, I refer to those who don’t have valid documents,” said Mahawar. “If you have a valid passport with you, you can register and then simultaneously proceed with other things such as getting a COVID test done or buying an air ticket.”
According to the ambassador, about 2,000 Indian expatriates have so far registered for the scheme. Travel documents have been issued for 250 people, and a similar number of people are being processed.
“We still have a full month to go, so I am sure many more people will take advantage of this policy,” he said. “We have been working very closely with the government of Oman during the entire COVID period, and remain engaged to further develop our cooperation in the post COVID era as well.
“Our foreign ministers spoke only recently, so I want to thank the government of Oman, and reassure them of our full support and cooperation in the days ahead,” explained the ambassador. “As far as this scheme is concerned, we welcome this gesture, this initiative of the government, which will really help a large number of expat community members who are most vulnerable.”
“In general, the Indian community has been extremely appreciative of the cooperation and support we’ve been receiving from the Omani authorities,” Mahawar revealed. “We have been operating flights regularly, first under the Vande Bharat mission, and then under the air bubble in place. There were a number of people who could not travel because their visas expired, they were facing some fines, from which they have now been exempted.
“These people who were not in a position to pay these fines were waiting for some opportunity to travel back: they are really happy that they can return home without paying these fines, given the limited income they earn, so these people are really welcoming of this initiative and making use of this opportunity to return home,” he went on to say.
The ambassador admitted it was difficult to put an exact figure on the number of Indians and other expats expected to register for the repatriation scheme, since many would have travelled to their home countries after paying their existing fines.
“I cannot say whether we will see a surge in the number of people who apply – in the first few days, they were waiting for more clarity to emerge – but in the last few days, we have been registering people at an average of 120 to 130 people per day,” he explained.
“I expect this pace to continue. We are encouraging people to come forward and register and travel back to India before 31 December. Our suggestion to all Indian nationals would be to register as soon as possible, if they wish to travel back home through this policy.”
Registration services are provided for free to those who arrive for this process at the Indian Embassy.
