Philippine ambassador pledges to discuss visa denial grievances

Travel agencies to provide proof that some clients have been denied entry into the UAE for spurious reasons.

Filipinas stranded in the Oman border town of Buraimi look for hotel rooms.

ABU DHABI // The Philippine ambassador says he will meet federal immigration officials again within the week if travel agencies supply him with evidence that his countrymen are being unfairly denied visas. Libran Cabactulan said he was waiting for several travel agencies in Dubai to give him proof of their claims that some of their clients had been denied entry into the UAE for spurious reasons.

Mr Cabactulan was told by travel agencies earlier this month that some Filipinos had been wrongly denied entry on the basis of age, while others had their visas rejected and marked "multiple use" even though they were on their first so-called visa run, where a person leaves the country for a short time to renew their visa. "I have yet to receive the evidence from these travel agencies before meeting the officials," he said. "So far, not one travel agency has submitted proof of these visa applications which I will show to the authorities."

He said that, if he did receive the new evidence, he planned to meet with the immigration officials within the week. Last November, Mr Cabactulan met Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, the Minister of Interior, and Brig Nasser al Minhali, the acting director general of the Federal and Naturalisation and Residency Department, to discuss the problems Filipinos were having returning to the UAE after visa runs to neighbouring countries.

The issue is believed to be related to the recent discovery of a number of Filipinos with forged visas. Officials began inspecting documents held by people from the country much more closely, and thousands of Filipinos were recently stranded in Oman and Iran after their visitor visas were refused or delayed. About 3,000 Filipinos were stranded on Kish island, Iran, and 1,000 in Buraimi, Oman. Several people from the country were also reportedly jailed recently for visa tampering.

Mr Cabactulan noted that the Philippine president, Gloria Arroyo, raised the issue during informal talks with officials during her visit to the capital earlier this month. "Before reports of the faking of visas in Dubai, my meetings yielded positive results. There was a speedy processing of visas," the ambassador said, referring to his previous meeting in November. @Email:[e-mail]