28 June, 2009

No Pakis or Bongs allowed here....

A Pakistani colleague of mine recently wanted to bring his brother over for Eid - so off he goes to get the visit visa sorted out.

Only to be told that no visit or residence UAE visas will be issued to Pakistani or Bangladeshi passport holders. No reasons as to why or how long - just said no.

Is it true, or was my colleague on the unlucky end of a rather lazy and cruel person? If it is true, can anyone say why and for how long?

IMHO, I truly think it is ridiculous to stop issuing visas like that (any country for that matter). Especially as there has been no political disagreements as such, and the fact that many people from those countries (I'm talking about middle-class income earners) would like to have family visit during Ramadan and Eid.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is plain discrimination

Anonymous said...

It's true. Not sure why. But it's true. Be glad they didnt stop the renewals as well.

Did you want him to bring you over a bong to go with your booze?

Anonymous said...

theBluesman said...
this is plain discrimination

You say that as if it's a bad thing.

hemlock said...

a week ago a pakistani woman was arrested trying to sell her 16-yr old niece to some dudes in oman, and she'd entered oman via dubai (recipe = enter dubai with niece, visit oman, sell niece).

they'd frozen new visas for about a week, but the last i heard - which was on thursday - they were being issued again.

Em said...

@rosh:
I know it's slang. So is 'Bong' for Bangladeshis, or Bengalis in general.

rosh said...

Never heard of 'Bongs'. What's with the slanguage anyway?

Songwriter F Space said...

Never heard something like this, I suppose it is temporary. There are far too many people of Pakistani/Bangladeshi origin here for such a measure to last.

Unknown said...

I think on some aspect it is good and on some aspect it is wrong, because Pakistanis, Indians and Philipine peoples are those peoples who are mostly working in middle class jobs and taking good part in the machinery of UAE,

Anonymous said...

Abu Dhabi Blogger said...
Never heard something like this, I suppose it is temporary. There are far too many people of Pakistani/Bangladeshi origin here for such a measure to last.

THAT is the exact reason why such a ban, semi-permanent, is a GOOD idea. You see a problem, I see a solution!

Vincent Fong said...

to a blessing in tragedy...

Are you agreeing to this? a solution to what may i ask?

Anonymous said...

Its difficult for me to understand this policy as anything other than cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.
The UAE NEEDS to make it illegal, plain and simple, to change a visit visa to a work visa, under any circumstances. Right now, they just collect another fee.
Then a visit visa can be issued to people, like the relatives mentioned by the original poster, to VISIT the UAE, not stay.
If the goal is to stop foreign workers from coming in while protecting what tourism industry remains, this is the simplest way to deal with the problem.

Kevin said...

Well said.. there should be no descrimination on such grounds.

Post a Comment

NOTE: By making a post/comment on this blog you agree that you are solely responsible for its content and that you are up to date on the laws of the country you are posting from and that your post/comment abides by them.

To read the rules click here

If you would like to post content on this blog click here