Government to waive paralysed worker's dues

Sharjah: The government has decided to waive all fines against a Bangladeshi national for staying illegally in the country to allow for his repatriation on humanitarian grounds.

The reprieve for Murtaj Ali, who has been lying paralysed and unable to speak in a hospital bed for a year after being seriously injured in a construction site accident, came on the orders of Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Interior, said Major General Mohammad Ahmad Al Merri, Director-General of Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD).

Al Merri said that Humaid Mohammad Obaid Al Qutami, Minister of Health, had also approved a waiver of all hospital expenses for Ali.

The fines were to be collected by the Sharjah Naturalisation and Residency Department from Ali for saying illegally in the country for one year and three months. The 32-year-old had come to Sharjah to support his family but a fall from the fifth floor of a building under construction dashed his hopes.

Brother arrives to help

Ali entered the UAE in February 2007 on a visa issued from Sharjah Naturalisation and Residency Department (SNRD). He has remained at Al Kuwaiti Hospital in Sharjah ever since the accident.

Ali's brother, Mustafa, has been brought to the UAE to help with his repatriation.

A Kuwaiti Hospital official said there is a case in a Sharjah court against the company where Ali used to work but the police report states that Ali himself is to blame for the accident. "However, the company agreed to pay him compensation of Dh30,000."

The hospital official added that Ali's sponsor had handed over his passport to SNRD but the document had been lost and the Bangladesh consulate had since issued an out pass for the worker.

Mustafa has been given a 14-day visit visa, he said. "The brother is sponsored by Dubai Islamic bank by a visa issued by DNRD under humanitarian grounds. Mustafa will follow up the case at the court. He will also collect the money due to his brother and will take him back home."