Indian Man Who Lost His Passport Returns Home After Being Stranded In Dubai For 16 Years
Ending his 16 years of wait to return home, Neela Yellaiah has finally reunited with his loved ones in his homeland.
Yellaiah arrived at the Hyderabad Airport on Monday and reached his home town on Tuesday.
The 48-year-old who hails from Chinthamanpalli village in Kamareddy District of Telangana had gone to UAE in 2004 to work as a laborer in a construction company.?
However, after he lost his passport Yellaiah could not return home for 16 years and was stranded in the middle east doing odd jobs in Dubai and Sharjah.
He also reportedly suffered a memory loss and his mental health was also falling.
While the family was still searching for him and trying to bring him back to his loved ones, one of his nephews who had gone to Sharjah for work spotted him, struggling to live, sometimes eating leftover food.
The family's attempt to repatriate him failed after Consulate expressed their helplessness as he did not have any documents.
Rupesh Mehta, a volunteer of a social service organisation came to know about Yellaiah and assisted him in getting a temporary passport from the Indian Consulate in Dubai.?
Bheem Reddy, an immigrant rights activist said that getting an emergency certificate was delayed due to the non-availability of old passport details of Yellaiah when he entered the UAE 16 years ago.
With the help of the passport office in Hyderabad, from where Yellaiah's original passport was issued, the family collected his details and through the Indian Consulate got an emergency passport issued in his name.
Even after this, Yellaiah was not able to leave the country as he had to pay a fine of 25 UAE Dirhams (Rs.500) per day for overstaying after his visa expired.
For his illegal stay in the UAE, Yellaiah had to pay a fine of approximately Rs.29 Lakhs, which he or the family could not afford.
But due to the intervention of some NRI support groups and the Indian Embassy, the authorities in UAE agreed to waive off the fine.
Yellaiah who landed in Hyderabad was allowed to meet his wife Neela Rajawa who was working a domestic help to support the family in his absence.
He was also exempted from institutional quarantine and was allowed home isolation.
