The MoI announced a three-month amnesty for illegal residents on September 2 to leave Qatar without facing any legal consequences of their overstay. The scheme will expire on December 1.
Speaking to journalists yesterday the Indian envoy said residence permit related issues would not be an obstacle for an illegal resident to leave the country.
"The Indian embassy is happy to help those who want to make use of the amnesty for exiting the country," he assured.
The MoI has assured that those who voluntarily surrender to the authorities for leaving the country would not be blacklisted or penalised.
However, those facing issues other than residence permit related problems may not be able to make use of the amnesty offer, he added.
Answering a query, Kumaran said at least 1,500 Indian nationals have so far availed of the amnesty offer and out of them about 150 had no passports either. "Hence the embassy has issued emergency passes to facilitate their exit during the amnesty period."
The ambassador also informed that the embassy has waived QR60 which it used to charge for issuing emergency passes.
Indian Community Benevolent Forum (ICBF) president Kareem Abdulla said the forum members will visit some of the areas outside Doha, especially those remote centres where construction camps are set up, to urge Indian illegal residents, if any, to make use of the amnesty offer.
He said the ICBF would distribute leaflets on amnesty through groceries, cafeterias and even money exchanges.
Exchanging high denomination notes
The Indian embassy is expecting instructions from the Ministry of External Affairs on how it could help Indian expatriates who have in their possession in Qatar bank notes of Rs500 and 1,000 which were scrapped by the Union Government on Tuesday evening with immediate effect.
"However, there is an upper ceiling for the Indian currency to be retained by our nationals outside India," ambassador P Kumaran said. Indian nationals travelling abroad can carry up to Rs25,000, it is understood.
