Coronavirus impact: Homeless Pakistani family in UAE running out of options to stay safe amid crisis

Dubai - With night-time restrictions in place, the family is at their wits' end and are running out of options.

While residents of the country are staying put and supporting the UAE's #StayHome campaign to flatten the curve of the Covid-19 virus, a homeless Pakistani family says they are struggling to put a safe roof over their heads.

The family of four - Uzma Farooq, 28, along with her siblings Rabiya and Bilal Farooq and their ailing mother Khalda Farooq - roughed it out on park benches, in mosques and even in hospital corridors for one month. But now, with night-time restrictions in place, they're at their wits' end and are running out of options to stay indoors, says Uzma.

"We haven't changed our clothes for days as there is no place to freshen up, and we haven't eaten properly as there's no money. But what hurts the most is seeing our aged mother suffer," she told Khaleej Times.

"She [Khalda] cannot sit or stand for long, she has no energy left and what we fear the most is for her health as she is a heart patient, has bad knees and is also severely anaemic. She has been advised to get iron drips as her haemoglobin level is very low. My mother has also developed anxiety and her immune system is very weak. We are all very worried," she said.

For around two weeks after they had to leave their rented accommodation in the Rolla area in Sharjah, the family stayed at a friend's place. But with rising cases of Covid-19, the friend asked them to look for another place since their apartment was small and congested.

Uzma, from Sialkot, Pakistan, moved to the UAE three years ago after taking up a job in sales promotion in a perfume company in Sharjah. Her sister Rabiya soon joined her and took up a job as a nanny in a day-care. Things were working well for them and they recently called their younger brother Bilal too, who was set to take up a job at a mobile repair shop, and had applied for a work visa through an agent. But the agent fled with his money, leaving him broke and jobless.
Things got tough after father died in a car crash
Explaining how and why she came to the UAE, Uzma said: "We had a doting father, who wanted us to get a good education and do well in life. But as luck would have it, he died in a car accident [in Pakistan]. We were staying in a joint family, and our relatives took all his share and asked us to leave the house. We were all quite young at that time and with no way out, I came to the UAE and got myself a job to support my family. Thanks to this blessed country, I was able to support my family and they moved into a rented accommodation. My aim was to gradually shift all of them here and we managed it until my company shut down and my mother got very sick. We had to admit her and get her tests and drips done."

With hospital expenses to foot and with no income, the family soon ran out of money and had to vacate the apartment. Since then, they have been living it rough.

"People and authorities are very kind here, which is how we managed to stay without a home for a month but now with the restrictions on being out and the closure of mosques and malls, we are finding it hard to find a place to sit, especially after 8pm."

Calling people of the UAE generous, Uzma said: "Even though we have been living in parks, mosques and hospitals, people, security guards and hospital staff have been very kind to us. They gave us food and accommodated us for as long as they could, but it is now becoming impossible. I am sure we will get jobs once again when the market opens up. For now, we just need a place to stay. We can't think straight now as we haven't slept for days."

saman@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai
• Pakistan