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Pradeep and Premlatha Kumar are trying to return to their hometown of Madurai in India
Pradeep Kumar and his wife Premlatha, who is 32 weeks pregnant, spent two nights last week sleeping in the basement car park.
They had been told to leave their home in the same building in Dubai by the landlord after they ran out of money to pay the rent. Eventually, a local charity came to their aid.
For Mr Kumar, the nightmare started in February, when he was laid off by the hotel where he worked.
The hotel cut down its operation after the coronavirus pandemic dealt a huge blow to its revenues. It did not even pay Mr Kumar for the last month that he worked.
Since then, he and Premlatha, whose pregnancy has been complicated by diabetes, have been trying desperately to return to their hometown of Madurai in India.
“I have no money to pay for my wife’s delivery, nor do I have the funds to buy a flight ticket,” Mr Kumar told the BBC. “The doctors say that if she travels after she enters her 33rd week of pregnancy then that will be a huge risk for the baby and her health. I just want to save my child.”
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Reuters
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Millions of migrant workers are living in Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates
Mr Kumar is one of the tens of thousands of migrant workers to have lost their jobs across the Gulf as a result of the economic downtown caused by the pandemic.
Those worst hit are the low-income labourers who came to the region looking for work to support their families back home financially.
For decades, migrant workers have played a key role in building the economies of Gulf Arab states, providing the manpower for the key construction, hospitality, retail and travel sectors.
The six Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) member countries – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman – host the majority of the 23 million migrant workers living in Arab states, according to the International Labour Organization. Most are from Asia.
Having lost their jobs, many of those migrant workers want to return home. But commercial flights have all but stopped.
In response to pressure from the Gulf states, India and Pakistan have started organising special flights to repatriate citizens from the region. However, that is proving a huge challenge.
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AFP
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So far, only 2,000 Indian citizens have been repatriated from the UAE
In the UAE alone, more than 200,000 Indian nationals have registered to be repatriated. Last week, almost 2,000 were flown back to India.
The Indian government says it will operate more flights in the coming weeks, but it is prioritising people with short-term visas, those with medical emergencies, pregnant women and the elderly. And due to the limited number of seats, even those who meet the criteria are finding it difficult to get on the flights.
Some Indians are also struggling to find the money to pay for both their flights and their 14-day stay at a quarantine facility in India.