- Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
- Scores of illegal residents gather outside the Directorate for Residency and Foreigners Affairs office in Al Aweer, Dubai on Monday to receive outpasses to travel to their home countries. The expatriates were unaware that the UAE amnesty deadline had expired on Sunday.
Dubai: Confusion prevailed over the end of the amnesty period as thousands of people gathered in front of amnesty centres on Monday even as doors had already been closed to illegal immigrants on Sunday.
According to various Ministry of Interior (MoI) statements, the last day for granting amnesty was Monday, but several centres, including Al Aweer Centre, had stopped accepting applications unannounced on Sunday, turning away thousands of people.
“We stopped receiving applications from people on Sunday morning,” said Major General Mohammad Ahmad Al Merri, Director General of the General Directorate for Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai. Contrary to the MoI statements, the sudden closure of amnesty centres surprised many.
Brigadier Dr Abdullah Sahoo, director of the General Directorate for Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Sharjah and head of the media committee for the amnesty campaign, told Gulf News that the amnesty campaign, which started on December 4, was on for 60 days only and, therefore, ended on February 2.
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