Week's ordeal at the airport

A man has described how he spent a week of sleepless nights at Bahrain International Airport.
Sunil Kumar arrived at the airport from India on November 20, holding a valid visa and looking forward to his new job as a supervisor at a construction company.
However, he was prevented from clearing immigration because of a computer glitch and was made to sleep at the airport - where he was forced to live off the charity of airport staff.
Mr Kumar was eventually allowed into Bahrain last Thursday, exactly a week after his plane first landed.
"I was so happy when I was coming to Bahrain, but then on arrival I had to face this problem," he told the GDN yesterday.
"When I stepped out of the plane I was excited, but terrified when officers stopped me at immigration.
"I was not allowed to call anyone and had to sit in a corner like a prisoner.
"I didn't have any money and I was starving.
"I tried sleeping on the floor and sometimes on chairs, without a blanket."
He was denied entry because the computer system said he had not been granted a visa, when in reality he had one. The 35-year-old, from Kozhikode, Kerala, described it as the worst week of his life.
"For the first two days, I was not allowed to talk to anyone," said Mr Kumar, who said he was too scared to be photographed."Then they took me to a small room, where they asked me various questions.
"They told me that if I was trying to enter illegally, I would be penalised.
Mr Kumar is not the first person to be stopped from entering Bahrain despite having a valid visa.
The GDN reported in August that at least two people suffered a similar experience, but neither were held for so long.
At the time, the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) blamed the problem on a technical fault, which resulted from a delay in some visas being entered into the system.
01/12/08 Aniqa Haider/Gulf Daily News, Bahrain

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Categories: Airports Dec 2008, Foreign Dec 2008