Oman deports Lankan family to UAE

Muscat: A family of six, who fled the UAE and hid in Oman, after the family head committed a financial crime in Dubai, were later arrested by the Royal Oman Police (ROP) and then deported to Dubai in the first week of February, the Times of Oman reported.

"This is for the first time that we reported a case involving an entire family to the ROP, which in turn arrested and deported them," M.M. Deshapriya, the Counsellor of Labour at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Muscat, said.

Embassy officials claimed that 40-year-old Sri Lankan national, R.F., along with wife C.P. and four children aged between two and 10, fled from Dubai and took shelter in Muscat after R.F.'s business collapsed and his cheques bounced.

"But they approached the embassy and told us that they have been duped by some persons in Muscat and they would require an emergency passport to fly back home," he said.

During the investigation, the embassy officials discovered from the Department of Immigration and Emigration Colombo, Sri Lanka, that R. F., along with his family had left Sri Lanka in 2007 for Dubai.

After reaching Dubai, he started off with a new business and even took a loan of 80,000 Dirhams (OMR8,000). But his business didn't flourish and his cheques started bouncing. Left with no other alternative, R. F. decided to flee to Muscat in the first week of January since he knew it would be impossible to fly back to Sri Lanka from Dubai or Sharjah.

He approached the Sri Lankan Embassy in Muscat for an emergency passport to fly back home along with his family.

It was then that the Sri Lankan Embassy in Muscat discovered that an Interpol alert had been issued against R. F. and the UAE had also blacklisted him from doing any business there. "But initially, he told us that he has been robbed of all his money and passport in Oman," Deshapriya added.

It was during interrogation that R.F. broke down and admitted that he had illegally crossed over the border to Oman.

"It was then that we decided to hand him over to the ROP, which deported him to the UAE in the first week of February," Deshpriya added.

The R.F. incident has brought to light the ways in which illegal residents sometimes attempt to flee the UAE for Oman.

"A large number of them include those who are wanted by the police in cases involving bounced cheques, unpaid loans and other crimes," a source said. (Source: Times of Oman)