KOCHI: The ‘overenthusiastic’ immigration wing at the Kozhikode international airport has become a thorn in the flesh, alleged the passengers. According to them, they were asked to wait for long hours for the verification process, even on producing the required documents. Last week 20 men were stopped by the officials even after their documents and certificates were verified. “We were going to Kuwait on a visiting visa. We had submitted ECNR (Emigration Clearance Not Required) and it was also cleared by the Immigration officials. But when it was about 15 minutes for the flight to take off, we were forcefully alighted. “When we enquired with the officials they did not give any proper answer. But we were told to wait at the lounge. By this time, the flight had taken off,” said a person in the group.“On the next day, a few from our group boarded a flight from Kochi international airport without any hassle. We informed this to the authorities at Kozhikode airport, and after that only we were allowed to travel to Kuwait. We still do not know what was the reason for stopping us,” he said.In a similar incident, a family was detained for several hours and later permitted to board another flight. The objection was still on the validity of the visa. According to immigration officials, the delay occurs only with the visa to Kuwait and that too for those travel on an employement visa. “As per the new rules laid out by the Kuwait Embassy, a person should be permitted to travel to Kuwait only if he/she posses the work contract certificate that is attested by the Kuwait Embassy. This rule came into effect following a flurry of protest by the migrant employees including Indians in Kuwait. Once the certificate is submitted they are permitted to board flight” Venugopal DySP of Immigration wing at Kozhikode airport said. However, the mystery over the delay in clearing the ‘visit visas’ remains unsolved.
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