Sharjah: A man who was once lauded by the Government of Ras Al Khaimah for his financial acumen is now languishing on Sharjah’s roads - jobless, homeless and penniless.
Egyptian Hesham Tantawi, 45, who once held plum government and private jobs in the UAE, says he is stuck in a debt trap, faced with over Dh300,000 in outstanding payments and a slew of cases against him. “I have nothing left on me except my clothes and my certificates - the only remnants of a respectable career I once had,” says Tantawi who, as an audit head of a Ras Al Khaimah body, won accolades for his lectures on finance matters including auditing, preparing balance sheets and budgeting.
Proper meal
“Such is my situation now that I can’t even buy a proper meal. I had to sell off all my shoes and suits – a collection that I was proud of and my iPhones, just to sustain myself,” adds Tantawi, who has been sleeping rough – in parks, building lobbies and sometimes in mosques – since his friends turned their backs on him last month. “I had no choice after my friend who had been paying my rent in a sharing accommodation for months stopped doing that recently. How long can someone continue helping an unemployed man like me anyway?” asks the father of one who has been fighting court cases since June 2013.
This was shortly after he lost his last job as the finance manager of a Dubai hotel. Tantawi claims he was arrested when he was called by his bank manager to restructure his loan. “I felt like a criminal when I was handcuffed in front of everyone and taken away. The reality is that I had gone to the bank to discuss a new repayment plan. Instead, the bank bounced my guarantee cheque unbeknownst to me and filed a case before calling the police and handing me over to them. My life has been a disaster since and my career damaged forever and all this after having paid more than Dh160,000,” recalls the man from Cairo, who was later released on bail and even got a favourable ruling from a Sharjah court.
Yet he hasn’t travelled since because of fear of getting caught at the airport. “A lawyer told me that the bank had opened cases in Dubai as well and I don’t want to go to jail again,” adds Tantawi, who hasn’t seen his son, now 15, since 2010, the last time he travelled to Egypt to see his ailing mum then suffering from cancer. “It is because of her that I had taken the loan. The cancer had spread to one of her kidneys and it had to be removed. I am glad the loan could fund the surgery and save her life,” he said.
Tantawi’s visa expired last year and his passport is due for renewal in weeks. “Sadly I can do nothing about it. I have had several job offers but the moment anyone hears my story, I am shown the door. If only someone understood my situation and took some mercy, I could still return to normalcy,” says the commerce major who still hopes to find a job, get the bank loans restructred and renew his visa.
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