Dubai, Aug 2 (IANS) The Indian consulate here is gearing up to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Indian independence with a flag hoisting ceremony and other activities.
Venu Rajamony, the consul general, will hoist the national flag at the Indian High School on Aug 15. He will also read extracts from the address to the nation by the President of India.
Meanwhile, the consulate received more than 34,500 applications for emergency certificates from Indian workers wanting to avail the special amnesty scheme for illegal expatriates, launched by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government. Out of these, it has already handed over 21,000 emergency certificates to the Indian nationals, a press release said.
Out of the 40,000 passports of Indian nationals received from the immigration authorities, the consulate has already distributed around 16,800 passports to the Indian workers.
Employers here take the passport and other travel documents of foreign workers and deposit them with the UAE immigration department. The passport is usually given back when the job contracts of employees expire.
The consulate has also extended its deadline for accepting applications for emergency certificates from Aug 2 to Aug 13.
In June, the UAE cabinet had announced a three-month grace period for foreigners present illegally in the country to regularise their status according to the law or leave the country without penalty.
There are around 1.4 million expatriate Indians in UAE, many of them contract workers. In Dubai alone, Indians comprise over 60 percent of the city’s total population of over 1.4 million.