Abu Dhabi: A family in India has for the past eight years been waiting for a call from their son who went missing in Abu Dhabi in 2009.
“I am sure he is living somewhere and will definitely come back to us one day,” Haseena Nasser, 23, sister of the missing man said on the phone on Thursday when Gulf News contacted her in India. Her brother Ola Parambil Hakeem, 31, (23 at the time he went missing) had some unspecified illness when he went missing, according to the family based in Thrissur district in the south Indian state of Kerala.
Hakeem, being the eldest son, started working as a helper to a heavy vehicle driver soon after completing his high school and later became a driver himself. His family includes his father, a woodcutter at a timber mill, his mother, a younger brother and his sister. He arrived in the UAE in November 2008 as a helper with a technical thermal systems company in Dubai to help his family clear a loan taken to build a house.
However, his work and salary turned out to be a big letdown from what had been promised by a recruitment agent back home, who had arranged his visa for 100,000 rupees (Dh5,482).
When Hakeem came to know that his employer in Dubai was not aware of the money taken by the agent and the agent’s promise of a “higher salary and easier job” turned out to be bogus, he was shocked. He became worried that his meagre monthly salary would not help him clear his debts any time soon and he fell into a depression, his sister said.
“Being a close-knit family, we did not want him to go abroad and had told him not to go. As a driver, he was earning good income and we were sure he would be able to clear his debts with his hard work. But the agent’s bogus promise lured him into this predicament,” she explained. She said Hakeem never had any history of mental health problems in his life and he was perfectly normal.
His depression manifested as certain abnormalities in his behaviour, which was reported to his uncle in Abu Dhabi, Aboobacker Bapputty, who took Hakeem away from his place of work and accommodated him at his own place for a few days. “First I thought he was not taking enough efforts to cope with a comparatively difficult but expected working environment. But that was not the case; he was deeply disturbed,” said Bapputty, 38, a driver.
The company moved Hakeem from his workplace in Dubai to another labour accommodation in Industrial City in Abu Dhabi (ICAD) and allowed him to take rest. When they found that he was not in a position to work, the company cancelled his visa and purchased a flight ticket for him to send him back home.
His sister said the family received a call from Hakeem giving them the pleasant news about his return and they arranged for a taxi to receive him at the airport. “But, on that day, we received a call that he went missing before going to the airport in Abu Dhabi,” she said.
His uncle said Hakeem had not taken any of his belongings or documents along at the time he went missing. “We searched everywhere. The company extended his ticket for a week but in vain,” Bapputty said. The company said that they would submit his passport to the local authorities, he added.
Nasser Alikkutty, Hakeem’s brother-in-law, said the family had approached the Indian consulate general in Dubai for help and the consulate had taken up the matter with the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dubai.
“We still await any information about him. When we checked, we came to know that he is still in the UAE, as per the official records,” Alikkutty said. He requested Gulf News readers’ help to get any information about Hakeem (his family members may be contacted by phone on 055-9659035, 050-3210229).
