Majority of Fujairah amnesty-seekers are domestic workers

fujairah — Household workers, including drivers, comprised majority of the amnesty seekers in Fujairah during the first two months of the ‘Protect Yourself by Modifying Your Status’ initiative, according to the emirate’s General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA).

Brigadier Mubarak Rabea bin Sinan, executive director of the GDRFA Fujairah, said most violators were African and Asian domestic helpers who absconded from their employers.

“The centre has been dealing with their issues, giving them options to either leave the country or apply for the six-month visa for job seekers,” he said.

Majority of the amnesty seekers have been cleared of their cases and several of those who were granted an outpass have already flown home, Bin Sinan said. Many of them, however, opted to stay in the UAE and applied for the six-month jobseeker visa.

In the run-up to the amnesty programme’s October 31 deadline, the number of applicants seeking to modify their status is increasing, he said.

“The increasing turnout figures at centres confirm that this amnesty is indeed an opportunity that is too significant for visa violators to pass up on,” Bin Sinan added.

Considering the huge number of people visiting the Fujairah centre every day, the GDRFA Fujairah has been managing the operations well with a team that works on two shifts, Bin Sinan said.