DID it coincide with Labour Day? Maybe, for it was May 1 when young Mohammed Khan and Mohammed Raip, who had come to this town of money to work about one and a half years ago, narrated their tale of trauma, repenting their blunder and criticizing fellow Pakistanis at their country’s consulate here for exploiting their misery.

The two seemed in search of an opportunity to share what they have been through with anyone who showed sympathy to them. “I live in Quetta. It was two years ago when the Dubai dream caught me. People said, you just enter Iran, go to Bandar Abbas, and there are boatmen who will take you to Muscat from where it is not hard to get to Dubai,” Mohammed Khan began.

“I had no papers; passport, ID card, nothing. I gave 15,000 Pakistani rupees to the agent at Bandar Abbas. I waited for a few days until there were 25 people, most of them from Pakistan, who all wanted to get to Dubai at any cost. We sailed for about 15 days, at first during day and night, and later only at night. Then one night we were told that Muscat was just a 10-minute swim away.”

His beard untrimmed and his shalwar suit shabby, 28-year-old Mohammed Khan recalled the end of that dreadful journey. “In the dead of night, we disembarked in waist-deep water. Someone shouted ‘There on the left side’. It took us about 25 minutes to swim ashore. The place was desolate. We decided to disperse so as not to get arrested. I don’t know about others, but I managed to keep away from the shurtas (police), worked off and on to earn a living and be able to move on.

“I reached Dubai about a month later, but wherever I went to get a job, they exploited my illegal position. They promised to pay later, always later. But they seldom gave me the promised salary at the end of the month. At times they threatened to inform the police about my illegal stay in Dubai.”

Raip, who belongs to a village in the Northern Areas, narrated almost the same tale, though he did not come through Bandar Abbas with Mohammed Khan. “In January, the Dubai government announced a general amnesty for illegal immigrants and gave a month for people to leave Dubai without any fear of being arrested and prosecuted. But we didn’t have money to pay for our tickets, so we came to this office as they were giving free tickets to people like us,” Raip told this correspondent.

Raip said since they had no papers and thus were at the mercy of the consulate to certify that they were Pakistanis, officials adopted delaying tactics and even demanded illegal gratification.

Inquiries conducted by this correspondent during a recent visit to Dubai showed there were others like Raip and Mohammed Khan visiting the Pakistan Association or queuing up at the consulate, or making attempts to hide in a bid to escape the law to continue their stay in the UAE.

Media reports in Dubai said the association had given more than 1,000 free tickets to illegal, poor Pakistanis enabling them to obtain outpasses from the Pakistan consulate. “An outpass is a must to fly back home,” association president Shafi Samana said. “And it (outpass) is not issued unless the applicant possess a ticket. However, lately the consulate is refusing to entertain those applicants who do not buy tickets from the airline counters set up on the consulate premises,” he added.

Asked why the consulate was insisting on the purchase of tickets from the airline counters set up there, Mr Samana said the association had negotiated a reduced fare with the Pakistani airlines on bulk purchase of tickets. But those manning the airline counters at the consulate, for reasons best known to them, want the applicants to buy tickets at higher prices from there.

“We will not honour air tickets issued by the association, and the amnesty seekers will be issued outpasses only when they purchase tickets from the airlines at the consulate,” Consul-General Amanullah Larik was quoted as saying in a press report earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the UAE government has extended the amnesty period till May 31 and announced in unequivocal terms that there will be no further extension and a crackdown would be launched to net in illegal residents. Out of status Pakistanis hope their government will facilitate their return home.