Social distancing ignored in rush for passport services
INDIANS CALL FOR ONLINE APPOINTMENT SYSTEM AS BLS CENTRES STRUGGLE
Members of the Indian community have called for an online appointment system for passport services to address the huge rush and violations of social distancing norms at BLS centres.
Indian missions in the UAE outsource passport and visa application processing services to BLS International, whose service centres operating at limited capacity are struggling to deal with a huge rush of applicants, especially in the morning, while clearing the backlog.
Some BLS centres at Indian associations remain closed.
Gulf News visited a couple of these centres this week and found long queues of applicants many of whom had to be turned away as only 150 tokens are issued per day. This has resulted in scant attention being paid to social distancing norms.
There was chaos at the BLS Centre in Deira yesterday as people rushed to get tokens. Police had to disperse the crowd.
Many applicants for passport renewal are people seeking repatriation. They cannot fly without a valid passport, or a travel document called emergency certificate or outpass.
Applicants told Gulf News said an online registration system would ensure that only those who have booked their slot can visit the centres.
‘I queued up at 4am, even then I got token number 45’
Mohammad Basheer, an employee at a typing centre who has not been paid for four months, said he had to visit the BLS Centre in Al Khaleej Centre for three days to submit his application for passport renewal.
“I have to renew it so that I can renew my visa before I get a call from the consulate for repatriation,” he said. “I don’t know when I will be able to return from India. Hence, I cannot go without renewing my visa that is expiring in August. But for that I need to renew my passport
that is expiring on June 14.”
As his first two attempts failed, Basheer decided to reach the centre at 4am the third time. “Even then I got token number 45,” he said.
He said he was fine with women and the elderly being given priority for tokens, “but,
all of a sudden 15-20 people came from nowhere and the security guard gave them tokens saying they had come and booked the slot a month ago. I had to believe it as they had given me a token for July 15 when I went there a second time.”
Regi K.C, who is seeking to
repatriate his family after both and his wife lost jobs, visited the Deira BLS centre twice.
‘People got impatient’
“When I reached at 8.30am, there was a long queue and I was told to come at 6am the next day. When I reached by 6.15am, there were already dozens of people inside and outside the centre,” he said.
When they didn’t get the tokens later, he said, some people became impatient and started shouting at the security.
“I left because I was worried about people not following social distancing. I just hope that I can catch a repatriation flight before the expiry of my passport on June 23. I don’t see any chance of it getting renewed before that,” he said
Renewal for new visa
At the BLS centre in Sharjah on Tuesday, Mohd Asif Shihabudeen, who is on a visit visa, was seeking to renew his passport as he has got a job as as a receptionist and needs to get his employment visa stamped.
“I reached by 6.15am as my father had warned me of the rush and said they are only issuing 150 tokens. People were not observing social distancing.
“By 8am, we were told that only 100 tokens would be issued and some people started shouting and demanded to see the manager. I felt nobody was bothered about coronavirus and I kept away,” he said.