Submission of passport in Saudi Arabia in not India-specific

Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs, MJ Akbar, ruled out the reports that crew members of India's airlines were discriminated at airports in Saudia Arabia while being asked to submit their passports with the Saudi authorities.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, the minister mentioned, that "as per procedure followed by the Saudi authorities, all foreign flight crew members arriving in Saudi Arabia, irrespective of their nationalities or flight carriers, are required to submit the passports with the Saudi immigration authorities and in turn are issued 'crew permit' for stay."

Last month it was reported that a private Indian airlines' pilot had told the Delhi High Court that the Indian crew, unlike other nationalities, were made to deposit their passports with the Saudi immigration authorities while on a layover there.

In July, several media reports stated that four cabin staff members of Air India were detained by the Saudi Arabia police as they could not show them the original copies of their passports.

The kingdom keeps the original passport of crew members on arrival and issues photocopies of their travel documents for a period of their stay in Saudi.