Indian family in UAE says ‘living like prisoners’

Dubai: An Indian family of seven, claiming to be “living like prisoners” in Sharjah, is seeking help from the UAE government to legalise their residency status fearing arrest and deportation, a media report said today.

The family, three of whom do not have passports and visas, said that they do not even have enough to eat and there are days when they have to survive on a packet of quboos (Arabic bread), Khaleej Times reported.

Madhusudhanan, 60, from Kerala, and his Sri Lankan wife Rohini, 55, said they want to give a normal life to their children who have never been to school in their lifetime, the report said.

Their four daughters – Ashwathy, 29, Sangeetha, 25, Shanthi, 23, Gauri, 22 – and one son, Mithun, 21, are all unemployed and live with their parents in a dilapidated two-bedroom house in Sharjah, it said.

“I could not enrol my five children in school because of our illegal status. They did not even have their passports for a long time. They haven’t travelled outside the UAE even once. They have suffered for a lifetime. I want them to have a decent life,” Madhusudhanan said.

—–PTi