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Tourism Agencies Hit by Stiff Penalties

ABU DHABI - A number of tourism agencies in the country have been hit by stiff penalties for violating visa rules that are aimed at preventing people from entering or staying in the country illegally, said a top Ministry of Interior official.

The Naturalisation and Residency Department’s (NRD) acting Director General, Brigadier Nassir Al Awadi Al Menhali, said the ministry had imposed penalties ranging from warning letters to the suspension of the agencies’ applications at the NRDs for one year.

The ministry also stopped the refund of the bank guarantees paid by the agencies for visa issue.

The current deposit amount stands at Dh1,000 per visa and the agencies deposit large sums for their annual quota of visas.

The news of violations of visa rules comes a day after Khaleej Times revealed the ministry’s plans to consider a Federal National Council proposal to impose tighter measures on visitors by making it obligatory on them to submit a clean police record report and a bank statement from their homelands.

New visa rules were implemented last year in a bid to reduce the decade long problem of people coming using short-cuts.

However, Al Menhali said these recent violations showed that the agencies were still selling visas to expatriates to stay and work in the country while on visit visas.

“We are working on implementing a new controlling system to monitor the activities of travel agents,” said Al Menhali.

“How can a ‘tourist’ or a ‘businessman’ work as a driver or carpenter”, said Brig Al Menhali, adding “The Ministry of Labour has taken measures in all the naturalisation and residency departments country-wide. For instance, visitors must leave the country for one month if they need to get another visit or tourist visa.

“These tourism agencies gave the chance to thousands of illegals to stay in the country that is too dangerous for the society’s security.”

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