DUBAI, Sept 28: Thousands of people, mostly Filipinos, are awaiting renewal of their visas for the United Arab Emirates on the Iranian island of Kish or the Omani town of Buraimi, Dubai newspapers reported on Sunday.

The Khaleej Times and Gulf News said the cause of the backlog is a change made in July to the rules for renewing UAE visas.

Previously, those holding visitors’ visas could renew them in a single day simply by leaving Emirates territory and going to Kish or Buraimi.

But the new rules require a visa holder to leave UAE territory for at least a month.

Travel agencies say they were not notified about the change and have continued to send visa renewal applicants to Kish and Buraimi without telling them they must stay there for at least a month, Gulf News reported.

Khaleej Times quoted an immigration official at Kish as estimating 5,000 people are stranded on the island, 80 per cent of them from the Philippines. The Philippines consulate in Dubai could not be reached to confirm the figure or the estimate by Gulf News that another 700 people from the country are at Buraimi.

Many Asians enter the UAE on two-month visas in the hope of finding a job and then requesting a resident’s permit.

“All stranded visa changers are staying in hotels. Our law forbids tourists and foreigners from sleeping in private homes. If they are caught doing this, the police will arrest and jail them before deportation,” Reza Ardalan, head of the permit Office in Kish, told the Khaleej Times.

Kish Island has 50 hotels catering to visitors, he said, but only 10 of them are affordable for visa changers. The applicants can stay in Kish without a visa for an initial 14 days and this can be extended to as much as three months for 80 dirhams, the official said.—AFP