Indian passport services at all centres in Dubai and the Northern Emirates have been temporarily suspended at least for a couple of weeks.
The Consulate General of Dubai tweeted an advisory confirming the suspension of Indian passport services till April 7.
"Any emergency case can be brought to the notice of the consulate via an email to passport.dubai@mea.gov.in with documents explaining the emergency," and consulate officials will revert within 24 hours, the advisory said.
The Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi has meanwhile temporarily suspended normal attestation services.
“Embassy will reply to all the emails received up till 4pm on all working days, and if approved, will provide attestation service on the next working day”, it said.
It said in its announcement shared over its twitter handle that it will process only those applications where the passport of expatriates have either expired or will be expiring by April 30, 2020, until further notice.
"If someone has an emergency attestation requirement, he/she could scan and send the documents, explaining the emergency through email on cons.abudhabi@mea.gov.in”, the Abu Dhabi embassy added.
The suspension of services in Indian missions in the UAE comes even as the Emirates is implementing a StayHome national campaign and encouraging people to follow the social distancing instructions given by the authorities. The Indian consulate shared the announcement on its twitter handle.
Non-compliance of the above safety measures will lead to imprisonment and/or a fine of between Dh200,000 and Dh1 million, the UAE police has stated.
