JEDDAH: More than 600 Indian workers crowded around the Consulate General of India on Sunday, asking to be deported home.
Workers, both visa overstayers and those with valid passports but without their sponsors’ clearance, pleaded with consulate officials for their immediate deportation.
“We’ve waited under the Sharafiyah flyover for several days to get arrested by the local police ... but that has not materialized and so we are here,” said Mohammed, from the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Commotion prevailed at the consulate for nearly three hours on Sunday morning. By 1 p.m., as the crowd started swelling and shouting slogans, police arrived and took the Indians away in three buses.
Inquiries show that they were first taken to the Madinat Al-Hujjaj, near the seaport, and then moved to the deportation center.
Consulate sources said those without valid travel documents or residence permits were issued with application forms for issuance of emergency certificates in a bid to facilitate their deportation.
“It was all peaceful and at no stage was the peace breached,” the sources said.
