Dubai: The tears stream down Farzana Pervez Hussain’s face. A Type II diabetes patient with chronic hepatitis C, her body has been ravaged with a variety of cancers — breast cancer that metasised into the bones and brain.
Since 2009 she has been undergoing phases of chemo- and radiotherapy at Tawam Hospital, Al Ain, that leaves her drained and dazed. However, that is the least of her worries right now.
Having contracted pulmonary tuberculosis in 2013, aggressively treated for it and declared free of TB, Farzana, 41, faces the threat of being deported and separated from her five children and husband.
“I am dying, please don’t take away these few moments I can have with my children, I weep for their fate. They are going to be separated from me anyway as my disease progresses. But, until I am alive, I need to be near them. How can anyone expect me to be exiled from my family?” she asks. Farzana has two daughters and two sons — the oldest daughter is 17, the two sons are aged 14 and 12 and the youngest child, Ambreen, is only six years old.
Desperate to get permission to let his wife stay in the UAE, her husband, Pervez Hussain, 42, is running from pillar to post to get the deportation order lifted.
“My wife has been suffering from cancer since 2009. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and she underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy at Tawam Hospital the same year. But the cancer never left her and it spread to the bones and her brain in the last five years. While she was undergoing treatment for the cancers, she began coughing and the hospital advised a random phlegm test. She tested positive for tuberculosis in 2012. She underwent a detailed course of treatment for the last two years and has been declared tuberculosis-free. She cannot infect anyone. The hospital screened my five children and me as well and we tested negative. However, Farzana was served with the notice of deportation a month ago. I have deposited my son’s passport and mine to get hers back and have been trying my best to keep my wife here. In Gujranwala, my home town in Pakistan, the cost of a single cycle of chemotherapy is PRs100,000 (Dh3,715). I cannot afford treatment for her cancer there. We as a family need to be together for as long as we can. Please help us on humanitarian grounds,” pleads Hussain, 42, who has lost everything in the last few years of the struggle to keep his wife alive.
The Tawam Hospital clearance report, signed by their Deputy Chief Medical Officer, clearly states that that the patient has no residual symptoms of TB and that she will not have access to the chemotherapy treatment in her home country. However, the Hussains have yet to hear anything from the government.
Hussain ran a successful grocery in Dubai a few years ago. He lost heavily in a rice trading deal and had to sell off his grocery.
Now he is being evicted from his home as he cannot afford the rent; out of his five children, only the eldest, who has finished high school from Pakistan Education Academy, is still studying. The younger children have been taken out from school as he cannot afford the school fees. Besides the visas of three children have expired along with their father’s visa. Only his wife, who was a partner in his business and his eldest daughter, who was sponsored by her mother, have a valid visa.
“I am penniless, almost on the streets. I will undergo any challenge or hardship, but I cannot bear to have my wife taken away. She will suffer too much pain without being able to get chemotherapy. She needs to be here beside me. I will work hard to make ends meet. I have so far never begged for any financial help from anyone as I am self-respecting. Despite being driven out of my home; my children being deprived of school education, I have kept my family together. People in Dubai have been very compassionate. This is my sincere plea to everyone to help my family stay in Dubai. Both my wife’s parents and mine are no longer alive. I had to sell everything I owned in Pakistan to keep my family afloat here. I will not be able to take care of them in Pakistan,” pleads Hussain.
