A family over here in Sharjah, an expat couple with their son are struggling to return home to Pakistan after having a lump some overstay fine of AED 90,000. The man lost his job in the year of 2016, and has been struggling since then.

Abdul Ghani, 33, had mentioned that all his problems only began after he had lost his job and till then all else was fine. He worked as an IT officer for an investment company in Dubai. Towards the ending of 2016, Abdul Ghani had to cancel the visas of his immediate dependencies – his wife and his son. His son is now aged 7 years old.

The next year, in early 2017, he got a job again in an engineering company but was not hired as he was arrested earlier in a Sharjah case that was related to defaulting on the dues on his then existing credit card. The family hails from Karachi in Pakistan.

Abdul Ghani said, “This was before my new visa with the new company was stamped in my passport. After my case, the new company said, ‘sorry, we cannot take you now’. I had no visa; there were other overdue payment cases against me; I couldn’t get another job, and we couldn’t leave the country.”

When his funds ran dry, he appealed to the immigration authorities in Dubai, where their visas had been issued, and requested to waive or even reduce the overstay fines of his family’s. The fines were reduced by AED 4,000 for his wife and AED 4,000 for his son provided that he can settle the fines within a span of 30 days. Although, with the conditions provide, Ghani had stated that he needed the rest of the money to take care of a bounced rent cheque case.

“I eventually cleared all my cases against bank loans, credit cards and bounced rent cheques. I paid my fines related to them and I served my time in prison. There is no case against me now. We want to go back to Pakistan but there is a backlog of visa overstay fines of some 530 days, amounting to about Dh90,000 for the three of us. How can we settle such a huge amount when I have no job, no visa, and no money? I hope someone has a way out for us,” he mentions.

Ghani added, “I’m not in good health — I have diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The stress we’re facing is worsening my condition. I recently fainted while walking on the roadside; some good people helped me recover. I had to pull out my son from his school in Sharjah in 2017; he was in grade two. I have his school Transfer Certificate but what good is any paperwork if we cannot rebuild our lives? I have a job offer from my former boss in Karachi. Maybe one day I can come back to the UAE, but right now we’re worried about getting home.”

Ghani had come to the UAE in 2012 and worked as an Admin officer in Dubai for a gold trading company.