JEDDAH: The Civil Affairs Department in Jeddah has taken quick action to stem the growing black marketing of numbers given daily to expatriates who throng the department to get their children’s birth certificates.
Children born to expatriates need to get an official birth certificate to validate the temporary birth certificate issued by the hospital. The official birth certificate is a requirement in order for the child’s name to be added to the expatriate’s iqama (residence permit).
Invariably many expatriates delay in getting the certificates thus contributing to the rush at the department, which admits only a certain number of people every day. The numbers are distributed in the early morning at the start of the working day, and those who miss out have to come the next day.
Recently, however, expatriates have been complaining that those waiting in line fail to get the numbers, while some of those coming later manage to get a number and are served on the same day.
They said these back-door entries were being facilitated by the black marketing of these numbers for SR100 by cafeteria workers in the Civil Affairs Department.
One South Asian expatriate refused to pay for the number and despite a number of attempts in trying to go through the regular channels, he failed. He then approached Arab News for help.
“This needs to stop,” said 38-year-old Abdullah who has been in the Kingdom since the age of five. His ordeal began when he went to the department for a birth certificate for his child at 9 a.m. on Tuesday last week.
“I was told by an employee to return on Saturday. When I did, I was told that the tickets had run out and that if I wanted a number, I had to show up at 5 a.m. next morning and wait in line. As I was leaving the department, another expatriate informed me that I could get a ticket for SR100 from a worker in the cafeteria,” he said.
According to Abdullah, two years ago when his third child was born, this was not the situation. “You could get a number at noon and still be served,” he said. “I haven’t got a number up to now despite three attempts before I finally gave up,” he said. Mohammed, 28, another South Asian who was born in the Kingdom, said that he paid SR50 for a ticket in order to avoid the hassle.
“I negotiated with the boy in the cafeteria for a number 10 slots away from the number being served. What else could have I done? I had work and I was not ready to waste more time after several attempts of waiting in line from 5 a.m.”
In response to inquiries from Arab News an official source in the department who did not wish to be named said that the names of applicants would now be written on the ticket. This practice has been in place since yesterday with the names of the applicants being handwritten on the ticket by the employee.
The department, however, has not opened an investigation into the matter nor was the number of applicants the department serves daily disclosed. “The best way to respond to such a complaint is to make it impossible for those other than the applicant, whose name is written, to make use of the ticket,” the source said.
Abdullah will go to the department for the fourth time today after being notified of the new setup. He said, “If a few individuals stand up to these corrupt individuals, they will spare many others problems in the future.”
