- I Paid A Bribe
- 14 years ago
- 594 views
International Customs Hold Passports and Ask for Foreign Currency
We'd landed from Dubai. Me being one student among below minimum wage labor workers from Dubai. While going through customs, a lady officer went down the queue collecting everyone's passports claiming this would speed up the process. They looked at the visas and then let some people go, while the others waited to declare nothing. I had nothing to declare and that's what I told the junior officer. He took it alright, but said if I wanted my passport back, I had to pay him 50 Dirhams, which was around 650 rupees then. I wasn't the only one asked to do this, there were the laborers from my plane begging and pleading to be let go. These men had worked in Dubai in poorer conditions, the only money they might have had for their families would have been around 100-200 dirhams. What a welcome back to India for them it was.