Hundreds of destitute young men from Pakistan are forced to seek help from their UAE consulate each year in order to pay for flights home.
Officials said crippling fees charged by reckless recruitment agencies often left workers unable to afford tickets back to their home country.
The Consulate-General of Pakistan in Dubai said many victims often sold all their valuable possessions in an effort to come to the Emirates to find work.
But if they failed to secure employment in the country they were left with nothing, and needed financial aid from Pakistan to afford their flight back.
“Normally they’re youngsters in their twenties, mostly from rural areas of Pakistan,” said Ahmed Amjad Ali, Consul General of Pakistan in Dubai.
“They are told that once they go there [to the UAE], employment is waiting for them.”
A 2016 survey by International Labour Organisation found that Pakistani workers paid overseas recruiters about 10 times the official cost to work in the Emirates.
The same survey found two thirds of migrant workers borrowed money or sold belongings, including jewellery and livestock, to cover initial recruitment fees.
Predatory recruiting agencies in Pakistan often sell would-be workers tourist visas and flights with the promise employment was easy to find in the Gulf.
But Pakistan consulate staff said the result meant their officials often had to cover repatriation costs at a later date.
In 2019, it paid more than Dh522,500 in airfares to send home about 1,000 Pakistani citizens living in the UAE.
It also provided an additional Dh22,000 in financial support although it cannot assist those who have defaulted on bank loans or overstayed their visas.
Assistance is only provided to the destitute and critically ill so that temporary travel documents can be issued.
“They are people from a poor background and they sell everything and come here,” said Consul General Ali.
“They have nowhere to live, nothing to eat and we then have to get a ticket to send them home. I can say on average it’s around 15 people who come to us a week.”
