Shanavas Mammed Koyas passport number and address flashed on TV screens back home in Kerala on the day the Air India Express flight from Dubai crashed in Mangalore. After getting two-three missed calls from my wife and relatives,I called them back. They could not believe that I was alive in Dubai. The TV reports showed my passport number,home address and other details and a lot of my neighbours assembled at my house to offer condolences, said Shanavas. His passport No. F 0606599 was listed against the name of Abdul Samad,who died in the crash,indicating the possible involvement of a fake passport racket,popularly known as Kasargod Embassy in Kerala and the Gulf. An organized network of forging travel documents and passports,Kasargod Embassy has been used by a lot of poor immigrants,mostly to get out of the Emirate once the sponsors refuse to return passports. There is a gang selling fake passports to people who want to go out of the UAE for Dh 5,000. They have a stock of passports on which residency visa or visit visa is stamped. Anyone coming to UAE with a genuine passport and visa can also sell his passport to the gang, said sources. K M Abbas,an immigrant from Kasargod and editor-in-chief of Siraj Daily,a leading Malayalam newspaper in Dubai,said: The earlier practice was that the Arab sponsor would keep the passport (if an immigrant labourer leaves the job). It is out of helplessness that many people from Kasargod have taken fake passports. Sources at the Indian Consulate confirmed they have received a complaint from Shanavas Vallikkonathil whose passport number was found on the passenger list put out by AI. Consulate officials contacted the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department whose records confirmed that the original passport owner (Shanavas) had not left the UAE. The appearance of the same passport number with exact details have confirmed fears that at least some of the passengers may have travelled on fake passports and may not get compensation. But Minister for Overseas Affairs Vayalar Ravi,who is now touring Dubai,has promised that relatives of the real victims would get compensation.
