Bankrupt businessmen get to start afresh
▶ Owners of failed companies get a chance to start over by sending home family members who don’t have papers
The UAE’s amnesty programme has given owners of struggling businesses a chance to work their way out of debt by sending home family members whose visas have expired.
Men who were sponsoring their wives and children when their businesses folded said the amnesty, which ends this month, gave them the opportunity to start over and pay back loans without accruing fines for overstaying their visas.
Murtadha said he had suicidal thoughts after his business partner fled the UAE in 2012 with Dh3.2 million from the company bank account.
He sold his car, business, factory machinery and wife’s jewellery to pay bank loans and his company’s suppliers.
But he said that in 2014, a contractor withheld his payments and cashed security cheques for Dh200,000 and Dh42,000.
When the cheques bounced, Murtadha was summoned by police in Dubai and Sharjah. He has been arrested twice over the past four years and released after paying fines and explaining his financial situation.
He is thankful for the second chance.
“The amnesty is the fire that has burnt all the bad things that happened in the past,” said Murtadha, 39, who moved from Pakistan to Dubai in 2002. “When I heard about the amnesty announcement, I felt like I was flying.”
When the passport of a family’s sole breadwinner is held by police, their dependants’ visas cannot be renewed.
Murtadha was able to keep working because his visa expires next year but his Indian wife, who suffers from bipolar disorder, could not be treated without residency documents.
Their son, 12, has not attended school for the past four years because he did not have a valid Emirates ID and their daughter, 4, has not had legal papers since birth.
Murtadha’s son now lives with his grandfather in Pakistan and his wife and daughter are with her family in India.
“My children are my lifeline but I had to let them go,” he said. “I want to rebuild my business and get my family back.”
Murtadha owned a flourishing company handling interior work for flats in Burj Khalifa, then shops and restaurants in Dubai Mall and Deerfields in Abu Dhabi. He now works as a consultant.
He made drastic changes to limit expenses, moving out of a villa with a swimming pool to share a flat with another family.
“People like me who sent their family home have another opportunity,” Murtadha said. “We needed this break. Living for five or 10 years without proper papers created tension and guilt.
“The amnesty gives us a chance to do something good for our family. It is an opportunity for people like me to progress and develop.”
He knows of two other men who sent their families home during the amnesty. Support from the community and volunteer workers helped him to work through the past six years of financial trouble.
Murtadha no longer issues post-dated cheques, working only with cash.
“Never again will I give a post-dated cheque, only a current cheque,” he said. “This has taught people what can happen when a cheque bounces even when you are serious about making payments.
“But the government has also shown us that it is here to support us. They gave us a solution to become legal.”
Post-dated cheques are commonly used in the UAE as a guarantee for business transactions.
The cases against Murtadha came before a Dubai Court directive in December last year to issue fines instead of jail time to help those in debt resolve minor bounced-cheque cases.
Embassies and consulates have been working with community organisations since the amnesty began in August to reach residents who have overstayed their visas.
Girish Pant, a volunteer who works with people who overstayed their visas, said Murtadha’s story was similar to that of many fathers who stayed in the UAE to resolve court cases.
“There are still some people stuck because they have not paid their credit card bills or not paid back banks,” Mr Pant said.
“The amnesty is humane because it gives them a chance.
“There are some families who have lived here for more than 20 years without a visa and their children have never been to school.”
Murtadha still has debts to pay and a case to settle before police return his passport, but he has learnt a hard lesson.
“If you lived in a villa, move to a small apartment,” he said. “There is a difference between need and want.
“Dubai is a place of opportunity. You have to work really hard and understand how to get that opportunity.”
The amnesty gives us a chance to do something good for our family. It is an opportunity for people like me to progress MURTADHA Consultant