Egyptian diplomats in the United Arab Emirates have not officially heard from the Emirati government about rejecting applications for Egyptians' visas, diplomatic sources said.
The sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that their offices received few complaints about applications being rejected and that Egyptians have received visas in Dubai without problems, with rejection issues mostly in Abu Dhabi.
News reports had claimed that Egyptian relations with the UAE had soured because of signs that Egypt was reopening relations with Iran.
Emirati sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Sunday that authorities had decided to halt work visas for Egyptian residents because of uncertainty over Egypt’s post-revolution foreign policy.
But an Egyptian senior diplomatic official said the reports are no more than rumors, adding that complaints from those whose papers were rejected don’t mean that a change in policy has been made.
Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, an Egyptian whose papers were rejected, said he had been in the UAE for almost two months and easily found a job in Ajman, working for a temporary salary.
He said he might have been rejected because the Emirati Interior Ministry was unable to track down his criminal record after the Egyptian State Security apparatus was dissolved.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
