Walkathon raises funds for Indians workers

DUBAI: Unable to buy tickets for their return, hundreds of Asian and Arab workers, including Indians, have been stranded on the Kish Island, a free zone area of Iran where people from UAE get a visa extension.

A Dubai-based organisation of the Jia community of the Philippines has organised a walkathon on Saturday to raise funds for buying tickets for the expatriates, mostly Indians and Filipinos.

"We have come across moving tales from those stranded and the long wait they have to endure to get a visa sent across to them by their employer or a friend or a family member. Some have been stranded there for months," said Bhavesh Nagada, a member of the organization told the Gulf News .

Kish Island is a halfway house for the skilled and unskilled workers from Asian and Arab nations who come to Dubai on visit visas and go there for an extension of their visas, change visit to employment visas, or for a job switch, a transfer of sponsorship.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com