DAMMAM, 12 June — Fifty-five traffic violation tickets for a 55-year-old expatriate in five years!
Cheeman K., an Indian expatriate from Kerala’s Malappuram district, had been driving a Dyna truck for a local sweet shop for the past four years. During this period, he was issued 55 traffic violation tickets — 54 for the expired registration of his vehicle, and one for wrong parking.
According to Cheeman, the total amount he is required to pay for the tickets is a staggering SR7,000.
Cheeman said he is responsible for one parking violation, but that the responsibility for paying the other 54 tickets lies with the sponsor.
Cheeman has not been to his home for the past five years and eight months because of these traffic tickets.
Saudi law states that anyone with outstanding traffic fine to his name cannot leave the country.
Cheeman said he has been asking his sponsor all these years to clear the fines. “In the past five years, there were so many occasions when I was needed at home, but I could not go because of the traffic fine,” he told Arab News.
Cheeman, who was getting a monthly salary of SR800, says that raising SR7,000 is simply beyond his means. He added that he stopped going to work 18 months ago when the sponsor refused to pay the fine, despite his pleading. Last month his sponsor gave him back his passport and took back his expired iqama. The passport does not contain an exit visa and so he is stranded.
Cheeman does not have sufficient funds to sue his sponsor. “I don’t have any source of income. For the past year I haven’t sent any money home and my family there is in a miserable situation. I fear that I will starve,” said Cheeman, who is the father of five daughters.
He has been advised to present a petition to the Indian Embassy, as well as the Eastern Province governorate. But he complains that that is a long, drawn-out process and he wants to leave the Kingdom at the earliest possible opportunity.
