Kerala - Kochi   

Gulf returnees facing an uncertain future

KOCHI: With the three-month amnesty period declared by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for illegal immigrants set to end on November 2, its impact will reverberate in far away Kerala as well.

For, among those returning devastated to their homelands would be a large number of Malayalis who had flown out in the hope of bringing prosperity to their families by sweating it out in the Arab land.

With an uncertain future staring them in the face, the tales many of these people tell are strikingly similar.

Sabeena, hailing from Kondunagalloor, was in the first batch to arrive in Kochi this July. Ms. Sabeena said she was treated very badly by her Arab employer in Sharjah and the payment of salary was not regular. She had gone to the UAE on a two-year visa, but stayed back for another six years, illegally. “With two daughters to marry off, what else could I do,” she asked on her arrival.

Abdullah, a resident of Palakkad, presented a case study on the risks people take either for the well-being of their families or extended Gulf dreams. Having run a textile shop in Sharjah for nearly two decades, life took a turn for the worse when his shop was pulled down about four years ago in an anti-encroachment drive. Forced to return home, he flew back, this time on a forged visa. He opted for amnesty, rather reluctantly.

He might again try his luck on a forged document. Clearing debts, recovering lost property, education of wards – the reasons for risking a jailed life in a foreign land went on and on.

The Cochin International Airport alone has received 1,050 passengers with emergency certificates this year. (Those returning under amnesty carry only the emergency certificates issued by the Indian embassy in the Gulf State concerned). Besides those returning under amnesty, the figure also included people who had approached the embassy even before the amnesty was declared, K.E. Joy, Superintendent of Police at the airport, said.

However, there are still thousands who, despite their illegal status, decline to utilise the opportunity. For them, the warning by UAE officials that an “intensive” campaign would be launched from September 4 to nab immigrants would sound ominous.

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