Over 40,000 illegal Bangladeshis living in United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been brought under general amnesty.
This was revealed by Bangladesh’s ambassador to the UAE Muhammad Imran.
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Ambassador Imran said that these applications were submitted over a period of five months.
The UAE first announced general amnesty for illegal foreigners for three months between August 1 and October 31, reports bdnews24.com.
After Ambassador Imran explained to the UAE government that it may not be possible to process passports for so many persons who are living illegally within a period of three months, they decided to extend the grace period to another two months.
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The term of the general amnesty which has been extended till December 31, will allow illegal immigrants to either validate their stay or depart the country without paying fines or serving jail time.
On the first day of the general amnesty, the Bangladesh Embassy in Abu Dhabi received around 3000 expatriates.
However, the Office of the Consulate General of Bangladesh in Dubai received around 6000 expatriates.
To resolve various problems of the illegal migrants, the embassy staff worked till late hours.
Over 35,000 illegal expatriates were issued Machine Readable Passports from Abu Dhabi embassy and Dubai consulate while around five to six thousand expatriates were granted outpasses to return to Bangladesh in the past five months.
Ambassador Imran said that the number of illegal Bangladeshis in UAE is more than that of countries such as India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Phillipines.