21 August 2016
DAMMAM: The Saudi Embassy in Italy warned its nationals not to overstay their tourist visas, warning that those who overstay would be deported, fined and banned from entering Italy for five years.

The Saudi Embassy referred to the guidelines about traffic accidents in Italy. It said those involved in such accidents must stay in place to avoid criminal prosecution, according to Italian law.

Embassy sources said Saudi nationals must stick to any guidelines to avoid penalties and this is very important. He said the penalties in Italy are very strict according to the law.

He said the laws in Italy don't provide for a recurrence of the violation and the penalty is applied immediately. He said the embassy issues daily and weekly guidelines to tourists and students to follow in the event of driving a car or becoming involved in an accident. The same strict guidelines apply in the law governing visas.

The embassy also warned all nationals against theft. It added to stick to the official limit of buying one commodity, which is 2,999 euros, according to the different Italian currency lists, and purchases that exceed that must be paid in full through credit cards, checks or bank transfers.

In another development, the King Fahd Causeway this week witnessed unprecedented congestion from Syrian residents going to Bahrain coming from different areas of the Kingdom. This was after their embassy in Manama stated it issued a new decision stating as of Aug. 7 it will no longer receive the documents of its citizens electronically and that goes for all previous bookings, and anyone who wants to update their documents must stand in line at the embassy gate to be served.

This new regulation created much panic for thousands of Syrians who started moving to the Syrian Embassy in Bahrain to follow up on their official papers, passports and other documents. A number of them said they received an appointment four months ago and now it has been canceled, and that the new regulations are creating much headache for them because they are coming from Saudi Arabia and need to overstay in Bahrain and wait for long hours.

© Arab News 2016