DUBAI, 31 August 2007 — The UAE government had granted an additional grace period of two months to illegal residents wishing to leave the country, Interior Minister Lt. Gen. Saif ibn Zayed Al-Nahyan said.
The grace period will be for a period of two months, expiring on Nov. 3. Al-Nahyan said that the extension applies only to those who seek to get departure permit and not to those who wish to rectify their status.
“Ample time was given to the violators seeking to rectify their status but apparently that was not taken seriously,” he said. “Only those who wish to cancel their visas and leave the country will be given departure permits.”
The UAE had announced a three-month amnesty starting from June 3, which is ending on Monday. During that period workers who wished to stay in the country were given the chance to rectify their situation. Those who wished to leave could do so without any penalties being imposed on them.
The Sharjah Department of Naturalization and Residency announced that a total of 23,503 violators have either regularized their status or left the country since the federal Cabinet’s announcement of the amnesty. “Around 3,326 violators have corrected their status and exempted from fines. Some 8,068 exit passes were issued while transactions of 12,109 are being processed,
“We have mobilized all our resources and energies to finalize as many transactions of amnesty-seekers as we can and as quickly as possible in line with the Cabinet resolution,” said Lt. Col. Abdullah Sahoo, director general of SDNR.
