Hi Vijay, I can fully empathise with you. Even my family went through a similar trauma at the Mumbai Airport, last year. Despite having a residence visa my wife & 2 kids aged 5 & 1 year respectively were refused to board the Emirates flight to Dubai by the immigration staff despite having checked-in b'cos of the fact that my wife's passport they claimed required Emigration Check. Thanks to some Babu in the passport office the line which was crossed across Emigration Check Required stretched upto ECNR and hence depite being a PG, my wife was refused immigration clearance. She begged the immigration staff and requested them that the passport office in Mumbai has confirmed that the passport is ECNR but it fell on deaf ears.
It is extremely unfortunate that people at the airport are more inclined in filling their pockets instead of being a little humane in their behaviour. It's high time that such issues are brought out in the open and action taken against such erring people. We have Pravasi Bhariti Sammelan every year where so much emphasis is given on NRI's contributing to the growth of the country but how unfortunate it is that the same Pravasi Bharti is treated with humiliation
RE:Even I went through a Similar Trauma
by Diwakar on Dec 21, 2006 05:12 AM Permalink
That is not fair. The fair question to ask is, what would have happened if it was 2 ethnic Americans with kids born outside and the kids not having valid travel documents. What would have happened is anybodys guess, but I think officials would have been more courteous and probably would have given more time to have their travel documents verified. Some how US citizens seem to have more rights in their country than Indians can come to expect. The problem is 2 fold though. We Indians do not get the attention we require because of our sheer numbers. I have experienced this at the Indian embassy in NYC as well. We have to stand in queues outside whereas an American can just walk in by showing their passport at their consulates while we are waiting in queues to get visas, even there. The numbers should not be an excuse for high handedness though, no matter what. As someone rightly pointed out, in this case officals were overzealous in handling the situation.
