Help for stranded Filipinos

The Philippine government sets up a temporary help desk at the Omani border town of Buraimi for Filipinos awaiting new tourist visas to re-enter the country.

Many Filipinos travel to the Omani border town of Buraimi to get new tourist visas for the UAE.

ABU DHABI // The Philippine government is setting up a temporary help desk at the Omani border town of Buraimi for Filipinos awaiting new tourist visas to re-enter the country. The desk, which will be manned by two officials, will assist Filipinos seeking work in the UAE or in any other country, said Marianito Roque, the Philippine labour secretary, who made the announcement on his department's website last week.

Jeffrey Cortazar, a labour attaché, and Mario Antonio, a welfare officer, arrived in the Omani capital of Muscat on Tuesday. They are expected to man the desk until Feb 11, but their stay may be extended. The desk will help speed up the renewal of tourist visas and cut down the time Filipinos have to spend at Buraimi. The officials will help Filipinos find work by evaluating their skills and qualifications in co-ordination with the Philippine overseas labour offices in Muscat, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

"We welcome this development," Nasser Munder, the labour attaché in Abu Dhabi, said. "These officials can make the proper recommendations to Manila after verifying the situation at the border." He said, however, that the problem would continue as long as Filipinos used Buraimi as an exit point. "We cannot prevent our nationals from going on a visa run. We can only give them advice," Mr Munder said.

For years Buraimi and Khasab in Oman, and Kish Island in Iran, have been popular destinations for those who go on so-called visa runs. Last year, Brig Nasser al Minhali, the acting director general of the Federal Naturalisation and Residency Department, said people who entered the UAE on a visitor visa must return to their home country and wait a month before being issued with another visa. The new regulations, which took effect on July 29 last year, affect people from countries such as India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Russia. Citizens of 33 nations, mostly western, are exempt.

However, most Filipinos have opted to go on visa runs to Buraimi or Kish Island instead of returning to the Philippines. They are running up large bills while waiting for their visas. This prompted the foreign affairs department in Manila earlier this month to advise Filipinos not to use Kish Island and other nearby exit points such as Buraimi for visa runs. They are now being encouraged to return home once their visa expires and apply for a new visa in the Philippines if they wish to return.

The issuing of new re-entry visas in the UAE, which previously took three to five days, now takes about one month, Romeo Yang, a labour attaché at the Philippine overseas labour office in Muscat, said. Last December, travel agencies disclosed that 3,000 Filipinos were stranded on Kish Island and another 1,000 in Buraimi, after tourist visa applications for Filipinos made in late November had been subject to stricter scrutiny by immigration because of cases of visa tampering.

As of Jan 11, only 782 Filipinos remained in Buraimi, Mr Yang said. While many had returned to the UAE on fresh visas, some Filipinos had decided to return to their home country. [e-mail]