15 return from Dubai, had to borrow money

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 15

“Kukkran de khudde ch rehnde si, hun ghar parte ne” (They lived in dingy rooms. Now, they have finally returned home),” says a much-relieved Baldev Singh as his son Arvinder landed in Jalandhar after several arduous months in Dubai.

Brothers Gurwinder Singh (33) and Harjinder Singh (30), who served as valets in Dubai, looked confused when asked which hotel they would like to stay for quarantine on reaching Jalandhar. They didn’t have money pay for the hotel stay.

‘Not paid since March’

We haven’t been paid since March. The company sent us without the customary money for flight. The flight back home cost us 700 Dirhams, which we borrowed from fellow Punjabis. — Gurwinder Singh, Shahkot resident

Many of the 15 workers, who returned from Dubai yesterday, didn’t have the 700 Dirhams to pay for their flight back, leave alone money to stay at a hotel. Jobless and hungry, they begged and borrowed for the flight back home.

Gurwinder Singh, a Shahkot resident, says, “Compared to the musty bunk in the room, it’s like heaven here. Open skies, three-square meals, milk and tea, when we ask for it. We are taken care of and feel lucky to have made it home. There are hundreds stuck in Dubai awaiting their turn for the flight. Many of them aren’t even being given food.”

Homecoming has meant freedom for the 15 of the total 27 people who landed in Jalandhar on Thursday. Without salaries, they are the dispensable workforce of the Middle East.

Baldev Singh, father of Arvinder Singh, from Uggi village, said, “It’s awful there. My son worked as a valet. It’s been six months since he received his salary. He was putting up in a shabby hall. My two more sons are in Dubai. One has to stay back due to visa obligations.”