Standing in the rain for 40 queue numbers to travel to India!

Neighbouring country India is a popular destination for Maldivians for medical and other essential purposes.

Until recently, travelling to India has been easy for Maldivians. They could obtain the necessary services with the tourist visa they got on arrival. Moreover, they could apply for additional visas if needed while already in India on tourist visa.

But the situation has now changed. Changes made by the Indian government to visa regulations have resulted in several difficulties for Maldivians.

“Only 40 numbers are issued daily. I’ve been trying to apply for visa now for three days. My child is in the ICU at a hospital in India. Here are the documents to prove that. It’s cancelled today also,” said a person who had been queuing in the rain outside the Indian High Commission since morning.

Another person said that the biggest difficulty is that the application has to be made online.

“They want us to apply online, print it, and take it with us. How can everyone do this?” said a person accompanying an elderly woman.

Another person said that after waiting in the long queue, the employees of the High Commission do not converse with them in a polite manner.

“I accompanied this elderly woman because she may have trouble,for example,if she is required to sign something. They spoke rather rudely to her,” the elderly woman’s escort said.

Shortly afterwards, we got to witness what he meant with our own eyes. A young person who asked if there was another option because his child was in the ICU, was given an angry reply by a High Commission employee.

As the elderly woman and the man whose child was in the ICU walked out of the High Commission in dismay, they ran into Speaker of Parliament Abdullah Shahid who also happened to be leaving the same building.

“Please make this better for us,” the young man told Shahid.

“That’s exactly what I’m working on as well,” Shahid replied.

The Indian High Commission has said that due to technical reasons, one week’s processing time is required to issue visas for travel to India.

A notice by the High Commission advised people to plan their travel and apply for visa well in advance to avoid inconvenience.

The High Commission also informed that visa free travel facilities to India available to Maldivian citizens are valid for tourism purpose only. For any other purpose, people are advised to apply and obtain the appropriate visas before travelling to India.

Previously, processing time for all visas other than tourist visas to India was two or three days.

Indian High Commission has said that this change is due to technical reasons alone, and not due to any other reason.

It has not yet been possible to obtain the High Commission’s comment on this issue.