Illegal workers to be given fare home

DUBAI // Help is at hand from a government charity for hundreds of people whose visas have expired but who cannot afford a flight ticket home.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment has set up a Dh500,000 fund to pay their fares.

"They are stuck because they don't have the tickets to go back home," Saleh Zaher Al Mazroei, acting director of the charity, said yesterday.

Many of those caught with expired visas are held in detention centres. "It is better to help them return," Mr Al Mazroei said.

"We will be giving Dh500,000 for the first year and we hope next year we can renew it. Our focus is on human rights."

The charity will work with officials from the General Directorate for Residency and Foreigners in Dubai to identify those in need of assistance.

"We would like to help people who don't have tickets," said Maj Gen Mohammed Al Marri of the directorate. "There are people who came on visit visas and overstayed and would like to go home."

Those who have overstayed longest are likely to be helped first. Flight tickets home can cost up to Dh9,000, depending on the destination and the time of year.

Among those to benefit may be labourers and housemaids lured to the UAE after paying unscrupulous recruitment agencies in their home countries, only to find that the promised jobs do not exist.

Labourers often resort to washing cars or other irregular work to earn money for their families at home, overstay their visas and are caught in regular sweeps by immigration officials, police and Dubai Municipality inspectors.

In May, the municipality detained about 195 street traders, 49 car washers and 42 illegal butchers and fish cleaners without valid visas.