UAE | Health

Plea for Reem's carer rejected again

Sharjah Naturalisation and Residency Department (SNRD) on Wednesday refused to help the family of Dr Reem, who is in a coma for the past three years at a hospital in Sharjah, despite availability of enough funds.

  • By Bassma Al Jandaly, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 23:43 October 29, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Reem's children - Gassan (left) and Bissan at their home on Wednesday.
  • Image Credit: Atiq-Ur-Rehman/Gulf News

Sharjah: Sharjah Naturalisation and Residency Department (SNRD) on Wednesday refused to help the family of Dr Reem, who is in a coma for the past three years at a hospital in Sharjah, despite availability of enough funds.

Umm Ramzi, mother of Reem, approached the SNRD on Wednesday and she was told that she cannot be allowed to sponsor a carer for her ill daughter because the law does not allow this.

"I went today to SNRD with the money donated by Gulf News readers in order to sponsor a carer for my daughter. I told them I have the fees with me but they refused my request," she said.

"I was told by the head of the section at the SNRD that I cannot be allowed to sponsor a carer for my daughter as the law prevents me from sponsoring somebody as I am under someone else's sponsorship and my salary is too low for this purpose," she said.

"I told them that my daughter is paralysed and she has two children and they need care which I cannot provide on my own," she said.

Plea

Umm Ramzi said she told them that people offered to help financially but she just needed to bring someone to help her daughter. She said her case should have been dealt with on humanitarian grounds.

"The officer-in-charge told me that it is not their business and they are implementing the law," she said.

Senior official from SNRD told Gulf News that the residency law does not allow expatriates on individual sponsorship to sponsor domestic helper.

"Umm Ramzi should be sponsored by the place of her work in order to sponsor a carer for her daughter. This is the law which we cannot break for any reason," the official said.

Umm Ramzi, who is now in a real dilemma, said she had no idea what to do.

"I know if I employ a domestic helper who is not on my sponsorship I will face penalty as the law prohibits such practices," she said.

She added that she wished that officials from ministry of interior could visit her daughter and see the situation.

"The hospital is asking me to take her out because they need the bed for another patient. How can I help my daughter and her children. I am a working mother. I am old and I have my family to take care of," she said.

Umm Ramzi said Gulf News readers have been offering help. "They came to my house offering financial help and support, which I do really appreciate. These people make me feel that life is good," she said.

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