Gulf News

Dubai, Mar 18: A 27-year-old Indian was stunned to find the residence visa page in his passport torn out.

Mustafa Palahodi Mohammad was detained at Abu Dhabi International Airport last week because he had no UAE entry permit.

The immigration official at the Abu Dhabi airport who is handling the case told Gulf News that the page on which the residence visa was stamped was torn out.

"The man was on his way back from annual leave. There is a page in his passport which was torn. An Indian Embassy official was here as well. We also had a word with the sponsor," said the airport official.

"The immigration officials at the Abu Dhabi airport informed me that my residence visa is not stamped in my passport and hence I would not be able to leave the airport. I was shocked," said Mustafa from Abu Dhabi airport, where he is currently detained.

He works as a cook with an Arab family and was on his way back after annual leave in Kerala, India.

Embassy officials when contacted by Gulf News said the embassy will issue a new passport to Mustafa today on an emergency basis.

"I went to the airport to verify whether Mustafa's passport was genuine. We have also provided him with passport application forms. It looks like someone played a nasty joke on him at Calicut airport.

"It is learnt that his sponsor has also come forward to help Mustafa out, which is very kind," said the embassy official. Mustafa said he had checked his passport half an hour before he left home for the Calicut airport.

"Everything was in order then. The only place I took out my passport was at the immigration counter at the Calicut airport. I had an Air Lanka ticket and so the flight was via Colombo. At the Colombo airport I only needed to show my ticket and not the passport. This means that things went wrong at the Calicut airport," he said.

C.M. Bhandari, the Indian Ambassador, said the embassy had come across such a case for the first time.

"This is first time the embassy has come across a case of this nature," he said.

Victims urged to file complaints

An official from the Department of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs (NORKA) told Gulf News from the south Indian state of Kerala: "Victims should come forward and register their complaints with us. We take it forward and launch an investigation. The victims can also file their complaints with the airport police.

"So far we have had no one coming to us registering such complaints.

This is a very serious issue," said the official.