Hi Abandoned by Dubai,
It touched my heart to listen to your story. I feel sorry to hear what has happened to you. I have to say that one more time I am convinced that this country will not make me feel at home and will not convince me to invest my money to. Behind the impressive fasad and skylines, there is a very backward thinking and culture. They think that they can avoid problems and diseases in the world by closing their doors and push back the problems to people in the other countries. How can they regard themselves as Men? The way they have been treating people is disgraceful. They probably have realized that if they continued doing this, the recession in this country would never recover. The country will stop working without all the expats and foreign workers. The hundreds of half-finished real estate projects will never be completed and will only turn into ghost cities. For the sake of country and for the sake of the beautiful Dubai and Abu Dhabi, I wish that I will see more of humanity and tolerance in their policy. I do wish prosperousness and greatness to this country.
Abandoned By Dubai wrote:I lived in Dubai for over 7 years. Around January 2010, my wife & I both lost our jobs co-incidentally, on account of our companies downsizing due to recession. I had to travel in & out of Dubai on visit for a few months, until July 2010 which is when I found a new job that would help us get back on track. My wife unfortunately could not find a decent one for herself, and she came to the point of almost giving up on even looking for one; so depressing our circumstances had become. We had to 'buy out' her residence visa from a friend so she could stay back and take care of our pet dog. But the worst was yet to follow.
When I applied for my residence visa on the new job. I was found to be infected with Hepatitis B and declared medically unfit. Before I could have a chance to even understand what the disease was all about, I was asked to pack my bags and leave the country within 7 days, since I was now 'banned' to live & work in the country; I later learned that one cannot even visit the country once banned. I begged & pleaded the authorities to hear out my story; that I had lived & worked in Dubai for over 7 years, owned property in Dubai, had bank accounts, a house rented for a further 8 months, a loan-free car, miscellaneous possessions, family, friends, my entire life was in Dubai - HOW ARE THEY EXPECTING ME TO JUST PACK & LEAVE?? But all to deaf ears.
Within 7 days I had to sell off my car, furniture, etc, clear out credit card debts & my personal funds, lose my pre-paid rent amount, and report to Al Aweer police station for my 'clearance'. I was escorted to the airport in a police car until I cleared passport control, and I flew back to India. My wife could not stay in Dubai by herself for obvious reasons, plus we knew that she was the only one to take care of me in my ill condition; so she accompanied me on the same flight and we had to leave our pet in the care of a dear friend.
In my heart, I have developed this feeling of despise for the UAE government & system that does not care for anyone or anything, and makes up laws overnight that can alter peoples lives very adversely, for absolutely no fault of their own. Most importantly, this has now become a question of loss of confidence with the UAE; as I got to know only recently that prior to mid 2008 they didn't have the ban, then starting Aug 2008 they carried it for 2 years and after I got deported, they have lifted it back. Some well wishers suggest that I should try and go back to Dubai now that the ban is lifted. My question is - what if I come back now as a carrier of HepB, start paying rent, take up a job, buy a car, etc., etc., and they re-introduce the ban after 2-3-4 years and abruptly ask me to leave....again. What then? I don't think I ever want to live in a country that treats people like that. My wife & I, are both disgusted with the way we were treated & don't want to go back to a place that threw us out the way it did.
