Down-and-out couple in UAE appeals for help

After losing jobs, they lose apartment and husband is jailed while wife struggles to put life back on track

Dubai: Armenian expatriates Shakeh and her husband, Artak, cannot seem to catch a break.

A series of unfortunate events, which included losing their jobs, losing the apartment where they were staying for not being able to pay rent, and the husband’s arrest following the property owner’s complaint for failing to pay rent has put them in a dire situation.

Shakeh, who is a mother of three, had to resort to signing two cheques — each worth around Dh30,000 — to be able to release her husband from jail.

She does not have the money to cover these and they are due in October and December respectively.

“We do not have the money, I have not been eating so I can save money to take taxis between Sharjah Central Jail and Sharjah Municipality to sort out the papers to release my husband. We are struggling. We left the apartment we were renting because we understand we cannot afford it and the owner has the right to rent it to someone who can pay. We are now staying in a room in a villa,” she said.

The room has no air conditioning but Shakeh says she is not complaining.

She said that if it were not for the kindness of the taxi driver, whom she would beg not to take the full fare for the trip, she would be begging on the streets to cover the fare,

“I’m a university degree holder, who speaks four languages, and I was almost begging on the street.”

Her troubles started around May 2015, when she decided to move to live with her husband, who has been working in the UAE for a number of years.

“When my three children were old enough, I decided to come help my husband by getting a job here too. I left my children with my parents. I then found an advertisement for a nursery teacher’s job,” she said.

She was hired as an English teacher for Dh2,500, “when I told the manager it was too little, she told me it’s OK and she I would raise later, after they tested me. I believed her.”

Shakeh said she was made to teach multiple subjects, as well as help run the nursery, working 10 hours a day: “She never paid me my full salary on top of all this additional work. She would deduct money for all kinds of reason — once she only paid me Dh5. Finally, they fired me for with no just cause and forced me to write a resignation letter. I did not know that meant I will not get my end-of-service benefits. I have filed a case against them in court and the trial is ongoing in Sharjah.”

The court papers Shakeh showed Gulf News indicated she was demanding Dh31,737 in payments and the return of her passport.

Around the same time, her husband’s company stopped paying him his salary for four months. Then in June 2016, his company shut down.

He then managed to find a job, she said, and was in the process of getting his new visa, “It paid so little, but at least it was a job. I was also trying to find a job, although my passport was unlawfully with my old manager.”

“We had been sharing the apartment with some friends, but they left and we were stuck trying to pay rent and make ends meet. We did not know that the property owner had filed a case against my husband for failing to pay — no one alerted us. One day in July, my husband was dropping his friend at Dubai airport and the CID took him. I did not even know where he was for hours,” she said.

She was told that the only way she could release her husband, who was transferred from Dubai Police to SharjahPpolice and finally to Sharjah Central Jail, was to keep a passport as a guarantee.

“I didn’t have my passport, his passport was in immigration and if I withdrew his passport he would lose the job and we would lose everything. They told me to put anyone’s passport, but I do not know many people here, so I did not know what to do. Finally, after explaining this, they told me I could sign two cheques as a guarantee, and I did,” Shakeh said.

Despite dark days, Shakeh remains hopeful.

“I just need some money and then I think I can speak to the property owner and explain our situation to him when he comes back, as the building manager told us he is out of the country. Maybe he will sympathise with us.”

“We have seen so many bad days. I left my three children with my mum, and I am supposed to be the one supporting them,” he said.

Shakeh provided documents to Gulf News supporting her claims.