TAIF — The ability to speak local dialects has been used as a means to identify whether illegal expatriates attempting to correct their residence status as part of an ongoing amnesty for Yemenis are only from that country, a member of the local correction committee said. Adnan Mohammed Dahhan, the committee's administrative and financial officer, said: “People of some other nationalities tried to benefit from the correction order by posing as Yemenis. “We easily spotted them from their dialect.” He said Yemenis who have no passports or any other kind of identification papers would be asked to speak in the correct dialect. “When they fail to do so, we will immediately realize that they are not Yemenis and therefore not eligible for status correction.” Dahhan said applicants would also be asked to give minute descriptions of their areas and to name their tribal chiefs. “This procedure has made it a lot easier for us to identify genuine Yemeni nationals.” Dahhan said as of Monday around 2,800 new Yemeni passports were issued for applicants. “We receive daily an average of 800 applications for status correction. “After thorough scrutiny and verification, we refer them to the passports department (Jawazat) so they can be issued with a six-month visitor card.” The correction committee in Baha has so far completed the issuance of more than 1,500 travel documents for Yemenis to correct their status. In addition, 1,800 visitor cards were issued in the region. The committee consists of representatives from the Jawazat and the Yemeni Consulate in Jeddah. In Sharourah, the first visitor card was issued on Monday while in Jazan the correction committee works from 5 p.m. until 2 a.m. to complete the procedures necessary for status correction. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman recently announced that Yemenis illegally resident in the country would be eligible for visitor cards that would allow them to stay in the Kingdom for six months and find work in the private sector, subject to certain criteria being met. According to the Jawazat, as of Tuesday a total of 8,033 illegal Yemenis have corrected their status.
