Expat workers scramble to legalize status as July deadline looms
You don’t need to look at the clock to listen to it ticking. This is because days are vanishing, with mornings and evenings like minutes and hours, and nights like seconds. So, what is the problem? With July 3 the deadline for expatriates to normalize their statuses, only 10 percent of expatriates in the Western province have finished procedures to go home. What do these statistics tell us about other regions?
With a massive number of expatriates, two weeks of the amnesty period left, and slow momentum in the fingerprinting and exit clearance processes, diplomatic missions are curiously worried. It is too late for thousands of expatriates who have yet to complete the process of correcting their statuses and it is too short of a time period with the timeline looming. This is a rare scenario, isn’t it?
Expatriates are stressed out and tired of long queues. All they know is that there is a deadline nearing. Poor fellows, will they be able to legalize their status before the deadline? Now that is a big question! Expatriates as well as businesses are harboring hopes that if they could be given a longer grace period, then things would be manageable.
We are not sure how things are going to be after July 3. However, what concerns us most is that expatriates have got to accept the current situation. They have to move on to legalize their statuses. Although the whole process may look uncomfortable, there is no staying back or ignoring the deadline.
Evidently, there is an influx of expatriates at Consulates and deportation centers. These people are waiting long hours in long queues, something that is both worrying and sickening! What does commonsense say? Diplomats, as the news reads, of the key affected countries of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines spend on average 18 hours at the deportation center. There is definitely hovering tension and this shall remain such until July 3. After that there is no guess.
What will be the fate of those who are unwilling to legalize their statuses? It is dampened spirits for those expats who foresee unfavorable conditions to have their sponsorship transferred to the companies where they are working just because those companies are in the red category? A bizarre situation indeed.
Procedures must be carried out quicker. The issuing of travel documents needs to be done urgently. Undocumented workers need to get their biometrics done.
The exiting of expatriates has got to be smoother. There is so much to do before the deadline. Will there be relief or will time run out? That is too early to say. Let us follow the daily press and see what newspapers have to say. Until July 3, doing the math will be vain and so let’s talk about positive outcomes. God knows, there could be a push for more of an amnesty.
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