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New visa regulations mean frequent travellers to India will be forced to wait two months before they can return to the country.

ABU DHABI // New visa regulations mean frequent travellers to India will be forced to wait two months before they can return to the country.

Visitors who wish to travel during that time, including those who have previously held multiple-entry visas, must seek an exemption, which can be obtained from a number of sources including heads of mission.

Business travellers to India can now only obtain a business or employment visa from the mission in Abu Dhabi or the consulate in Dubai if they have resided in the UAE for at least two years. Otherwise, business travellers must get a visa from their home country. However, an Indian embassy official said that in such cases, an exception may be made when the head of mission considers the reputation of the applicant’s company.

“The new restrictions are an effort to regularise visa laws, and move towards accountability, as well as an effort to safeguard national interests and security,” said an Indian embassy official in Abu Dhabi.

C Gangadharan, the assistant director of India Tourism’s regional office in Dubai, insisted that the changes, which have been implemented in phases over the past month, would not affect tourist or business travel.

“There is no decline from this part of the world in terms of travel to India,” he said. “As of now, we have heard of no complaints.

“Those who want to travel frequently, within the two-month period, will have to approach the consulate in Dubai or the embassy in Abu Dhabi, where they are willing to consider a special application, if they clearly state their purpose of visit.”

Non-Indian passport holders, especially those travelling as tourists, who already have long-term, multiple-entry visas to the country will need to make a special request and submit their travel details if they choose to travel back to India within a two-month time-frame.

“People will have to plan their holidays more carefully now,” said the embassy official. “They need to plan slightly in advance before they travel.”

Visitors wishing to travel in the region and return to India can receive an “endorsement” – in the form of a stamp on the visa from one of three sources: the embassy in their country of origin, before they begin their journey; in India, at any police station or the immigration office at departure; or from any Indian mission during their travels.

There is a fee for re-entry, according to the embassy official, and the time-frame for receiving an endorsement is the same as that for a new visa.

Matthew Cooper, a Dubai-based private equity executive who frequently travels to India for business, said he will have to forego his trip to Mumbai this month because of the new regulations.

“Generally speaking, India is getting more difficult to visit. Compared to other countries, it now takes the most possible time to process a visa and it has increasingly become very inconvenient.”

For Dr Kiran Shah and his wife, who are travelling through India and plan to spend a week in the UAE before returning there, it was a last-minute scramble to update their US passports and five-year multiple-entry Indian visas. With the rule change, the five-year visas required the special endorsement. In the end, they had to arrange for new visas at a cost of US$235 (Dh863) each.

“I did visit the Indian tourism office in the US and they mentioned that they are supposed to be informing everybody, but my wife and I did not receive anything,” he said.

Last year, the embassy in Abu Dhabi issued 14,358 tourist visas and 1,143 business visas.

ABDHABI // A male cook killed a maid and burnt her body after she claimed she was having his baby, police said yesterday.

The cook, AK, 39, attacked the woman, identified as ZRR, a 35-year-old Asian, the day before Christmas.

Police said the man was quickly arrested and confessed to killing the maid the day before Christmas.

AK said he started a relationship with the woman after catching glimpses of her throwing out the rubbish.

“It was easy for him to enter her room because the family that employed her were outside the country,” said Maj Jumaa al Kaabi, the head of the murder section at Abu Dhabi CID.

The suspect said he killed her because she insisted she was pregnant by him, but he denied having intercourse with her, according to police.

“When she insisted on her claims, he hit her twice on her head with a stone that he found in her bathroom,” Maj al Kaabi said.

“She fell on the bed, and he set her on fire using tissues he spread on different parts of her body.”

He said that AK then went to a neighbouring house, where he was employed. He was arrested after his employer provided police with information about him.

Maj al Kaabi said that a quick forensic science response helped to generate leads.

“Once the crime was reported, a team was formed from the CID for investigating and inspecting the body, collecting evidence and drawing a map of the crime scene, preserving the tools used in the crime and questioning the witnesses.”

Eight arrested in RAK for kidnapping and forcing new arrivals into prostitution
RAS AL KHAIMAH // Eight men who allegedly kidnapped women who came to the UAE to work in legitimate jobs and forced them into prostitution have been arrested, Ras al Khaimah Police said yesterday.

The gang is believed to have forced three women, two Asians and one African, between the ages of 20 and 25, to work as prostitutes.

The men were arrested, police said, after one of their victims got hold of a mobile phone.

Police arrested two gang members in a sting operation on January 21. The suspects entered RAK to collect money from a cousin of the woman, who contacted the gang in co-operation with police and told them she would pay to see her cousin. Police believe the gang planned to kidnap the cousin too.

The other suspects were detained five days later, in co-ordination with Dubai police, at two flats in another emirate where they kept their victims.

The alleged gangsters have been charged with human trafficking, abduction, adultery, sexual assault, making death threats, incitement to prostitution, violating residency law and forging business cards.

One of the women told police she travelled to the UAE after being hired by an Emirati man in Khor Khwair to work as a maid. Police said when she arrived at the airport, a driver working for the gang apparently did not deliver her to the sponsor, but brought her to a flat and threatened to kill her if she refused to have sex with him. After she refused, he and other gang members allegedly sexually assaulted her repeatedly over several days.

But when one of the gang members accidentally left his mobile phone behind in the flat, she contacted relatives in her home country.

The family then contacted a cousin working as a maid in RAK, who notified the woman’s sponsor. He contacted the RAK Police. The sponsor is not a suspect in the case. None of the women were charged with any crimes.

Police said they believed the gang operated in the UAE for six months and abducted women with different sponsors.

Major Gen Sheikh Talib bin Saqr, the head of RAK Police, pledged to support the national strategy to combat human trafficking and support its victims, irrespective of their country of origin.

He said air moisture first becomes mist and then fog when it gets cold mostly in the coastal and green areas.

Early morning walkers stick to their routine despite the dense fog in Sharjah. People around the country have been faced with dense fogs in the last couple of days. Image

Cool weather is expected to continue all over the emirates with occasional partly cloudy conditions, increasing daytime temperatures, and some chances of fog in certain areas.

Weathermen also indicated an increase in humidity at night and early morning over the next couple of days in the coastal and interior areas. Cooler temperatures coupled with humidity may create mist or fog over some areas.

People in Dubai, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi and some other cities also faced misty and foggy conditions on Monday in the morning. "It was dense in some areas reducing visibility to considerably low levels," said a weatherman.

He said air moisture first becomes mist and then fog when it gets cold mostly in the coastal and green areas.

Abu Dhabi police have also warned motorists to be cautious in the foggy conditions. The police have started broadcasting alert messages on Emirates FM radio. The service will not only alert the motorists and increase the awareness level but also help the police to communicate directly with them.

The police will also guide motorists on how to drive in foggy conditions, the use warning signs, lamps, speed reduction, keeping safe distance between vehicles and stopping when required.

The weatherman also advised motorists to be extra careful while driving late in the night and early morning since the conditions are moderately windy. The winds have been blowing at the speed of seven to 14 knots from the northwest and northeast directions at night and morning becoming south-easterly and south-westerly during the daytime.

Credit card scam suspects arrested
Men allegedly used counterfeiting machine

Sharjah: Sharjah Police have arrested three Nigerian men who were allegedly trying to sell a specialised machine that counterfeits credit cards, a senior police official said on Monday.

According to the official, Sharjah Police received a tip-off about African men who were involved in counterfeiting credit cards, as well as trying to find a buyer for the machine.

The official said the investigation revealed the first suspect did not have permanent residence and that he regularly changed apartments in Ajman.

His apartment was then raided with the cooperation of Ajman Police, and it was then that the two other men were arrested.

According to police, all three suspects were in possession of pornographic films and large amounts of money.

Police said the interrogation revealed that the suspects used the counterfeit credit cards to withdraw cash from ATMs in addition to purchasing expensive goods from shops in Sharjah and Ajman.

According to police, the suspects explained that the machine they used, which was purchased from abroad, would decode all the information from stolen credit cards and allow them to withdraw money from banks.

According to the police, all the suspects were violating the residency law, and one suspect confessed that he sold his passport to a friend who wanted to leave the country.