Man returns home after 14 yrs of exile

Dubai : A stranded Indian visitor, who came to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a visit in 2006, is finally going to return home on Saturday 14 years later after fines worth 511,200 dirhams were waived off, a media report said.

“I cannot wait to see my family,” Baskari Raghavlu, 41, hailing from Andhra Pradesh, told Gulf News on Friday.

Raghavlu came to the UAE on a visit in 2006 and soon after landing, tragedy struck.

He was injured in a road accident while travelling in his company vehicle.

For four years, he tried to get compensation from the company where he worked and even hired a lawyer, who took his passport.

“I don’t know where the lawyer is and where my passport went. And all this happened in a month’s time of my coming to the UAE. I did not know where to seek help. I kept waiting for the lawyer to help me out,” Raghavlu told Gulf News.

He said during one of the amnesty programmes by the UAE government, Raghavlu managed to secure an outpass to leave the country, but did not have money for his flight ticket.

Social worker Sheela Thomas said she found Raghavlu in a desperate state.

“He was struggling for accommodation. He was living off the generosity of some other blue collar workers… He just wanted to return home and see his daughter for the first time in his life. I then took up his case,” she told Gulf News.

Thomas added that Raghavlu’s overstay fines have been cleared and that she bought a ticket for him for a flight to Mumbai on September 26.