Stranded: Ghanaians seeking greener pastures in Dubai seek help to return home
Their bid to seek greener pastures elsewhere turned sour as most of them have unfortunately been left stranded in the United Arab Emirates after being swindled by their travelling agents.
The Ghanaians narrate how the said agents charged them exorbitant prices under the guise of securing them jobs only to be left to their fate upon arrival in Dubai.
According to these young people who were found in a town called Deira in Dubai, they got into what they found themselves in now due to unemployment in Ghana.
“I came to Dubai for greener pastures,” One of the stranded Ghanaians explained his reason for travelling to Dubai.
It is sad to note how some of them in their quest had spent all their entire savings; whiles others sold properties, others also went to the extent of taking loans in order to process their movement out of the country.
Also, it is obvious that they are motivated by the fanciful stories of how it is all rosy in foreign countries only to find out the situation is not that rosy.
Some also bemoaned the difficulty in getting jobs as they have been there for almost three years.
“Things are different from what we envisaged. You can only get a job through an agent, but their rate is costly, and they are not trustworthy”.
A visit to Deira, a town synonymous with Makola in Accra which is seen as the commercial hub of Dubai, shows Ghanaians together with other foreign nationals mostly Africans sitting on lawns in pairs.
It showed that these were people who had nowhere to lay their heads and had turned the park into their homes.
Some of them recounted how the activities of dubious travel agents are to account for their predicament.
“The agents deceive us. They will first rent a room for you and run away with your money. By the time you come back to your senses, your rent had expired, and you are homeless. We have to struggle with police officers every day.”
“An agent charged me GH¢6,000 with the promise of giving me a job. We are only employed in the construction sector, for which you do not get any wage for the first month. The challenge is that our Visas only last for a month, making the entire trip meaningless.”
Caught up in this situation, which leaves them with no choice but to live in the open, struggling day and night to fend for themselves and even take care of their hygiene needs.
“We sleep in the open with all our clothes outside. We don’t even have a place to dry our clothes when we wash them. Most of us are Africans. We do not have anywhere to go. We live here with ladies. We bath thrice a week”.
