Muscat: Indian expats returning to Oman have been forced to pay over three times the cost of a standard ticket.
Those involved in the process of bring expatriates back into the Sultanate and social workers claim it is due to the extra fees charged by travel agents which goes towards arranging chartered flights and receiving approval from Oman’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) - all required steps without which returning passengers cannot board their flights to Oman.
However, the ministry confirmed that there are no charges for seeking approval to return to the country, Times of Oman reported.
Generally, a one-way ticket from India costs OMR40 to OMR80 depending on the destination; but passengers have had to pay up to OMR 245 for the same.
“We are charging OMR235 if you want to fly from Delhi or Mumbai to Muscat. But you have to pay OMR245 if you want to fly from Chennai or Bangalore. You just need to fill up a MoFA form and we will do the rest. The money includes flights and MoFA approval,” confirmed a travel agent in Ruwi.
Over 300 chartered flights have already operated from various destinations in India to Muscat and Salalah, according to the Indian Embassy.
“I was charged about OMR190 for a ticket to return to Oman," said a passenger who returned to the Sultanate from the Indian state of Kerala.
"A one-way ticket to my hometown normally costs about OMR60. This is too much money.
“What’s worse is that they kept rescheduling our flight timings, just hours before we were expected to take off. It was a really frustrating experience,” he added.
Another passenger, who travelled from New Delhi said she had to pay more than OMR210 for a one-way ticket, when the average cost is only about OMR90.
“I paid this money because my daughter is here, and I need to take care of her,” she said.
“My husband cannot manage his job and our household on his own.
"I was speaking to other passengers who had made similar journeys, and they all said they had to pay high amounts to come back home.
It is a lot of money, but we don’t have a lot of choice. Our families and livelihoods are here.”
Indian Social Club community welfare secretary PM Jabir, who has helped organise a number of flights for people who want to go back to their home country said it is unfair to expect people to pay this sort of money, particularly when many of them cannot afford it.
“If we were able to organise flights at subsidised rates for returning workers, we would try to do so, but we are not authorised to operate outside Oman, and we need an agent on the other side to do things for us,” he said.
“The cost being charged for tickets is too high for migrant workers to pay. In fact, many of them are waiting for the airport to reopen and for the fares to come down so that they can return.”
“We try to intervene on their behalf with the travel agents organising the tickets for them, but they justify the cost by saying they have to make their own expenses meet as well,” added Jabir.
“However, this is only partly true: they are charging more so that they can also make some money, and are treating this like a business, when they should understand the concerns of people.”