Dubai: An Indian man who has been living without a job, money and a place to stay for months can’t fly home because his passport is allegedly held by his former employer.
Inas Leema, 28, says he is being forced to carry on in his daily struggle in Dubai despite a court verdict in his favour, asking his former company to provide a return air ticket and pay Dh15,421 in dues.
“I really want to go back now. I haven’t been paid for the last four months I worked with them and whatever little I had saved, I have now lost. I can’t even remember the last time I had the money to buy myself a proper meal,” said Leema who has been mostly living on doles from friends since losing his job in May.
No salary
Leema, who has a master’s degree in computer administration, joined a Dubai-based IT firm in April 2014 as a sales executive for a salary of Dh3,000. However, trouble started in January this year when his boss stopped paying him.
“Everytime I asked for my dues - Dh2,000 for January (since I had taken an advance of Dh1,000 for my rent that month) - and the full salaries for the subsequent months, my boss said that they had already paid it. They even had a sheet of bogus withdrawals from a currency exchange to support their claim,” Leema recalled.
A meeting held earlier this year to resolve the issue descended in chaos, said Leema. “When he called me to his International City office that day, he lost his cool completely. Not only did he abuse me verbally, he almost got up to hit me. I had to run out of his office to save myself. Since then he has been threatening me that he will not return my passport,” added Leema, who has now approached the Indian consulate in Dubai for help.
