JEDDAH — The status correction campaign for illegal Yemenis started on Sunday in passport departments all over the Kingdom, but many reported few visitors on the first day.
Only 121 illegal Yemenis turned up all over the Kingdom on Sunday with necessary documents, the Directorate of Passports (Jawazat) said in a statement on Monday. It said many people came without valid documents and were turned away by officials.
All 46 passport departments in the country, except those in the southern cities of Jazan and Baha, had completed arrangements to handle paperwork for Yemenis eligible for status correction under the current amnesty.
Maj. Gen. Solaiman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Yahya, director general of passports, said the process was slow and the turnout little because a large number of potential beneficiaries have not yet obtained new passports from the Yemeni consulates.
He said the status correction campaign would also include about 2,000 Yemenis who are currently held at the detention centers waiting to be deported.
The director said the Yemenis in detention centers would not be fingerprinted, preventing them from coming back to the Kingdom if they opted to be deported.
“This category will have priority over the others,” he said, warning that there would not be any correction for those wanted for criminal offenses or listed by their sponsors as runaways (huroub).
Al-Yahya said under the royal order issued by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, the correction process will continue until July 7 and cover all Yemenis who have been illegally residing in the country before April 9.
He said the passport departments all over the Kingdom have completed all arrangements but very few people have come to the Jawazat offices. “It seems that many of them have not completed the procedures required for correction including passports from the Yemeni consulates, the medical tests, the payment of the fees and the presence of a host sponsor, whether Saudi or compatriot,” he said.
Al-Yahya said after the correction, beneficiaries would be issued with a “visitor ID” that would legalize their stay in the Kingdom and enable them to be employed by the private sector.
Maj. Gen. Khalafullah Al-Tuwairgi, director of Makkah Jawazat, said there were few people who came for status correction on the first day and said officials are closely coordinating with the Yemeni Consulate in Jeddah to uncover any case of document forgery.
He said the Jawazat offices in Makkah Province will receive illegal Yemenis from 4.30 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. on working days so their work is not disrupted during the day.
Brig. Saud Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saeed, director of Madinah Jawazat, said they started receiving beneficiaries after Asr prayer on Sunday and completed all the required procedures for them including fingerprinting and document checks.
He asked beneficiaries to complete all necessary procedures before coming to the Jawazat. “This will spare us and them a lot of time and effort,” he added.
The Jawazat in Taif was ready to receive Yemenis looking for correction but the process was delayed because the representative of the Yemeni Consulate in Jeddah did not arrive until the end of the day.
Col. Solaiman Al-Suhaibani, director of the Jawazat in Riyadh, said his department was considering establishing an electronic link with the Yemeni Embassy and the Health Ministry to save Yemenis time when trying to obtain visitor IDs.
“The electronic link will also prevent overcrowding, especially during the last days of the correction campaign,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry has decided to accept Yemeni students in all government schools without birth certificates.
“The students will be registered and allowed to take the final exam only when they present a regular iqama (residence permit) or a visitor ID,” the ministry said.
