Dubai: A 30-year-old Indian man is crying foul, alleging that he was deported from the UAE on the basis of an “assumption-based TB scar”.
New Delhi-based Charanjeet Singh said he came to Dubai on March 3 to take up a new job at a law firm in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
“As required, I went for a medical fitness test in DIFC on March 4. However, I was asked to undergo another test at the Muhaisnah Medical Fitness Centre which I did on March 22. They suspected an ‘old TB scar’ on the basis of which I was deported within a week’s time.”
Free of disease
He claimed: “I did not have any history of TB either in my home country or in Dubai where I worked as a banker earlier between April 2006 and October 2011. I even had my visa renewed during that period without any problems.”
Singh alleged that he was not issued any report of his test results. “When I returned to Delhi, I went to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences hospital and got a thorough check-up. I got a skin test [Mantoux], chest x-ray, blood test, sputum test and a chest CT scan.
“Based on my test results, AIIMS issued me a certificate stating that I did not have any active tuberculosis.”
He said the CT scan revealed a “small fibrotic nodule and irregular spiculated margins” for which he was recommended repeated CTs every three months for a year.
“But it clearly stated that I did not have any active tuberculosis at present. Neither did I have any history.”
Singh said: “It was unfair and humiliating to have been deported on the basis of a mere suspicion.”
A spokesperson of the Dubai Health Authority said: “The deportation is in line with the UAE Federal Law No 28/2010 which states that new visas with old pulmonary tuberculosis or active pulmonary tuberculosis are to be considered unfit by law.”
“In the case of this person, after due examinations, a medical committee confirmed it is a case of old TB and the assessing Indian physician has also advised a CT scan follow-up after 3, 6, 9, and 12 months which is an international guideline for follow-up procedures in the case of TB to rule out reactivation,” the spokesperson added.
