Aiding the rescue of 23 workers living in a bus
Aday before senior photographer Mukesh Kamal retired from Khaleej Times in 2015, a former colleague and I went to bid him goodbye at his apartment in Karama. He was heading back to Delhi, India, and called the two of us over for tea and snacks.
While discussing his long, illustrious career with Khaleej Times, Mukeshji (like how we fondly called him) joked about some of our adventures during work assignments. Before I left, he asked, “I have some social worker friends here in Dubai… If I give them your mobile number, will you help them out with some of their cases?” I happily obliged, and we said our goodbyes, promising to visit him in Delhi.
Though I didn’t hear from any of Mukeshji’s social worker friends for some months, mid-December 2015, I received the first-ever text message from Indian social worker Girish Pant asking if I was free to meet him. He provided Mukeshji’s reference and said: “Will you be able to come to the crude parking lot near the Dubai Abattoir at 8.30 pm? Don’t worry; I promise you will be safe.” He added, “I’ve been knocking many doors for help and I desperately need your help.”
His request was highly unusual, but I agreed to meet since Pant sounded more desperate and concerned than dubious. The events that transpired after that night transformed the way I viewed what I do for a living. Pant took me to a non-air-conditioned passenger bus, which had been home to 23 Asian workers for over two weeks. They’d left their labour accommodation in Fujairah since the living conditions there were unbearable and they weren’t paid salaries for several months.
Though I’d done my fair share of stories about stranded workers, sailors and related humanitarian cases, this particular case left me more disturbed than any of the others. The men were living and sleeping inside a bus, and eating rationed food supplied by nearby mosques and other social workers. Many of them were sick, and the owner of their company had absconded.
When Khaleej Times notified the UAE authorities, they jumped into swift action. My colleague Amira Agarib handed over information about the case to the human rights division of the Dubai Police, and in a matter of hours, preparations were made to move the workers to labour camps in Dubai and Sharjah.
Two days after our story was published, the men were repatriated back to their home countries.
A few days later I received a Whatsapp image from Arun Mishra, one of the workers in the bus. He sent a pic of himself, reunited with his wife and kids. An ending to sad stories like these makes my career as a journalist genuinely worth it.