An official says, “90% of amnesty-seekers at Shahama center on Monday did not have passports.”

“Absconders who do not possess their passports and want to renew their residency visas in the UAE can visit the Shahama center to begin procedures,” said a senior official.

An official with the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship at the Shahama Centre for amnesty-seekers said, “Roughly 90 per cent of amnesty-seekers who flocked to the center on Monday did not possess their passports.”

The center had welcomed only those people who were looking to obtain their out passes in order to leave the country. Absconders are all required to come clean from the court and the CID departments in Abu Dhabi in normal case scenarios for such matters so as to have their status rectified and to stay in the country.

First category of absconders

The official said, explaining the procedures: “Those who ran away from their sponsors or workplaces and the police caught their passports, we can issue them documents at the Shahama centre to produce to their respective embassies to get new passports. This is for those who want to reside in the UAE after modifying their residency status.”

In order to obtain such documents, applicants are required to full fill all the procedures necessary.

“First, they need to visit the Shahama center and obtain a paper, then visit the CID office at the Abu Dhabi immigration and Abu Dhabi Court and get the paper signed and stamped there. Then they have to come back to the Shahama center again to get another paper to produce to their respective embassies to get a new passport. This procedure is for the people who wish to regularise their residency status and reside in the country,” said the official who didn’t want to be named.

Second category of absconders

 The second category of absconders can also visit the office in Shahama as well, but this is only for those who have run away from their sponsors in a time frame of less than one year only.

“They can come to the tent and we would have their passports to hand over to them. However, after one year, the lost-and-found passports are handed over to the respective embassies,” he said.

Representatives from the Indian, Nepalese and Philippines embassies’ had also come to the center at Shahama to help amnesty seekers seek amnesty from their countries.

The federal authority official appreciated their efforts stating, “Representatives from Indian, Nepalese and Philippines embassies arrived on Monday at the tent and they were briefed about the procedures and, accordingly, they guided amnesty-seekers.”