AP migrants risk lives to get into UAE for jobs

Udumula Sudhakar Reddy
2nd March 2009
Migrant workers from Andhra Pradesh are braving imprisonment and bullets to sneak into Dubai and Sharjah illegally through the Oman-United Arab Emirates border. They slip in by hiding in trucks carrying vegetables and other goods by paying 1,000 dirhams to the drivers.
If the guards are on high alert, the truck drivers dump the migrants somewhere on the Oman side and ask them to cross through other points where there is lesser vigil. From here, they are picked up again.
“At the borders the guards sometimes open fire at the migrants if they refuse to surrender,” said Mr Pedolla Raju, 25, who spent almost three years illegally in Sharjah and Dubai. “Once we cross the border, we are safe.” Mr Raju, a native of Rameshwarapalli of Bhiknoor in Nizamabad, said that those who are caught face six months in prison and deportation to India. The lucky ones land up menial jobs in Dubai and Sharjah. He had stayed in UAE for three years illegally after his visit visa expired and did not return even during the general amnesty declared by the UAE government.
“I spent a day in Jumeriah jail,” he said. “Then I was banned entry to UAE and issued an emergency deportation certificate.” The officials while deporting take the iris scan and fingerprints of the illegal migrants to prevent their reentry officially. However, many of them fly to Muscat again and then take the land route to the UAE-Oman border where they slip in through checkpoints such as Al Wajajah (Hatta) Al Buraimi, Al Hilli and Al Mudeef.
Most of the illegal immigrants are from Nizamabad and Karimnagar in Telangana, Chittoor and Anantapur in Rayalseema and East and West Godavari in Coastal AP. Now many of them are trying to return since the recession has spoiled their chances of getting good work or pay. “Even if there is work there is no payment,” said Mr Raju, who returned home on February 25.
Mr Satish Reddy, another youth from Rameswarapalli who returned to the state, said his father was still working illegally in the UAE. “But he too will return if he gets no work,” said the youth.
“We are now paid less than 600 dirhams a month,” said Mr Abdullah, a native of Chittoor who works in the sanitation wing in Sharjah airport. “This is very insufficient.”