Applicants for Indian passports in Dubai are worried

Dubai: Chaos continues at the Indian passport and visa service centre in Bur Dubai and elsewhere as many residents who submitted various applications at the centre are panicking because they do not know where their passports are.

The applicants include Indians who applied for renewal of passports and other services as well as citizens of other countries who applied for Indian visas.

Over the past ten days, Dubai police were called in at least five times to the centre as teething problems continue at the recently established centre, Gulf News has learnt.

The police were alerted by angry customers after response from the staff led many customers to believe their passports were lost.

The incidents happened at the service centre, run by BLS International, at Al Khaleej centre.

BLS officials confirmed, however, that no passports were lost but acknowledged that there were delays in returning the passports causing some residents to miss their flights.

Outsourced

The Indian diplomatic missions in the country outsourced the management of the Indian Passport and Visa Service Centres, which had been under Empost since 2009, to BLS. Since BLS began operations on April 6, many residents have complained of poor services and long delays, as Gulf News had reported earlier.

Failure to return passports immediately resulted in frantic calls to the police, said an official, who asked not be named. "The police came in twice on Wednesday and two times before that."

Yesterday afternoon, while Gulf News was present, three police officials visited the centre after an Arab national called the police requesting help to get his passport back.

"It was a nightmare to get my passport back. For few days I thought it was lost," said Anna Sullica, a British national who had submitted her passport to apply for a visa.

She was told that it would take five working days, but was given no proper receipt or reference number, she said.

"When I did not get my passport back even 10 days later, I visited the centre and the staff could not figure out where my passport was."

After four trips to the centre and spending several hours there, she finally got it back.

But many applicants were not as lucky and are still being sent back and forth between the centre and the Indian consulate. Several customers were seen shouting and panicking about their passports.

Amritraj Gupta, who submitted his passport for renewal on April 7, said: "There seems to be no trace of my passport. It has been a daily ritual to visit the centre to enquire about it. I have lost patience, since no one seems to co-operate and answer questions with clear specifics."

Their call centre (04 3594000) has stopped answering calls, and their online tracking system is also non-operational, Gupta said.

"Around 100 people were thronging the counter, many of whom said they had been there for days to ask about the whereabouts of their passports. There is no system or process, and no-one knew where anything is," Tim Ricketts, a British national, who had applied for a visa, said.

Hysterical

Ricketts added that in his long years of world travel he had never witnessed any situation as chaotic as it was at the centre.

"Things got so heated with several people near hysterical so the police were called."

After three hours he was told the courier service may have his passport. "Fortunately the courier said they have my passport and will deliver it just in time for me to travel to the UK on April 22," Ricketts said.

Saleh Ali, an Emirati Dubai airport official, who has not got back his passport yet after applying for a visa, said: "They are much disorganised and the customer service is zero."

"The service is pathetic and even after two weeks into operation there is no sign of improvement," said another customer Pavithran Kandathil.

New company - Teething problems

Consul General of India in Dubai, Sanjay Verma, said that over the next few days the issues with BLS services are expected to be ironed out.

"There is no doubt that the services have suffered in the past few days. The new company is facing some teething issues and is just getting grips on rolling out the services," he said.

Technical glitches in the initial days and backlog are the reasons behind the issues, he noted.

A BLS official said that the company is working towards improving the situation.

Source: gulfnews