Help Us Return Home - Stranded Ghanaians In Dubai Appeal To Gov't

Scores of Ghanaians stranded in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates have appealed to the government to help them return home.

This is after it emerged the recruitment agencies which lured them into the country reneged to find them readily available jobs.

Some of them who sent voice notes to Joy News, said they paid a Ghana-based travel and tour agency huge sums of money with a full package they were told included visa, a job as well as accommodation.

As it turned out, they are stuck in Dubai with no jobs and made to stay with others in a small single room housing as many as eight people at a go. 

One of the male victims in voice notes said although he trusted his agent, things in Dubai were not exactly what he was told and promised.

He said he is sad that he spent a lot of money yet he has not be given a work permit, a place to stay nor a job to do to recoup his investment.  

“Although I had high expectations in securing a job I was surprised the kind of work we were made to do. I was made to do a vulcanizer job in a shop as small as a kiosk.

“The one I work for is an old dirty looking old man who has no machines or tools to do the job,” he added.

A lady victim also said in her voice note that she is being abused by her madam making her life miserable.

But the Ghana Association of Private Employment Agency has called on the government to lift the ban on the recruitment of Ghanaians for domestic work in the Gulf countries.  

According to them, the ban which was imposed by the government in June this year on their activities, is rather giving a rise to the illegal travel agencies.

The Chairman of the Agency, Saeed Sharif said the illegal agents could not be bothered by government’s ban because they get to operate anyway.

“They operate under the table and do not have any records, they do not pay any tax, rather it is us the officially registered agents who are bearing the brunt of the suspension.

“This is because we are those whose operations have been put on hold and we cannot do anything,” he added.