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Goal: 'Vulnerable' to 'Stable'


There are many of us who feel vulnerable, silently enduring what life throws us. Life is a choice -- but when other choices are worse than the present situation, you will choose the lesser evil.

When you are vulnerable, it's either you stay in the dark or go outside bravely.  Time is the most dominant resource so you lose a lot of opportunities when you stay in the dark day in, day out, on the same status.  If you go out,  you will be exposed to the possibility of being harmed. It is at your weakest or most vulnerable moments that you will be attacked by visible and hidden enemies physically and / or emotionally.  You must be a wise and fierce warrior with undefeated spirit to rise.

The highest wastage in life is that time between (from-point) when you are most vulnerable and cannot utilize your talents to the maximum, and (to-point) when you become the person you must become. Unfortunately, time cannot be recycled and can never be carried over to the next day, month, year or decade.

It is not only the vulnerable people who suffer from their situation but their immediate families as well.

If there are 62,000 people illegally staying in a country doing odd jobs or depending on others to survive, how do their families cope up being away from them, most often than not nervous on how things would turn out?  They do not have valid identification cards, no health and life insurance, unbanked, cannot go to school or any training center for studies, cannot apply for jobs because even if employers will be interested in their qualifications they might incur high expenses in fines so why not hire the new ones, etc.  What a loss of opportunities and loss of income that could have been converted to revenues to buy basic products and services from vendors and services providers under a normal situation. What an ordeal!

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 62,000 illegally staying people finally found relief when the government ran visa amnesty for two (2) months in 2013.

Recently it was announced that UAE will run another general visa amnesty for foreign violators of the country's residency laws. Related information will be announced later.

UAE Chairman of Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship Ali Mohammad Bin Hammad Al Shamsi said that "the Cabinet's amnesty supports the country's economic competitiveness".  He is right.

It is a very timely logical move. There are many adverse effects of people's vulnerability -- chaos, poverty, sadness, sickness and death. We want peace, prosperity, happiness, good health and long life.

Added to this, if there are many people jailed due to illegal visa status or related to that as a result of vulnerability,  the government has to spend AED100/person/day (only an assumption), so the expenses for each inmate is AED3K/person/month (multiplied by the number of inmates on the same situation) -- which could have been spent for country development programs.
The UAE government launches "Protect Yourself via Rectifying Your Status".  The goal is to help vulnerable people to be economically and socially stable, by affording them a chance to live with dignity through decent opportunities.

The magnet of the UAE known as the land of opportunities in the Middle East, is very strong so many people from 200+ countries come here to live their dreams. But life is a journey with many detours sometimes and if the driver is not careful, he will be stuck somewhere.  This is part of life's process. 'There are people who get lost in the desert but are later found out', so to speak

To live with stability and dignity is a treasure. Dignity is a sweet word as it has the element of honor and respect, which we all need to feel -- that we are worthy of it. Chaos are created by people do not respect others, in most cases because they think that other people are not dignified and / nor stable.

We earn respect and honor. So to earn both and protect ourselves from attackers, we must do something -- whatever it takes -- to be stable and dignified.

For those who are lost or get stuck somewhere due to visa problems here, they have options to find the way out and move forward --

1) Rectify / modify their visa status by paying nominal fees, that is, find a gainful employment and if blessed to find such an opportunity have the visas amended without leaving and entering the country again (which is better than doing the usual exits for visa change as before), or;

2) Voluntarily leave the country without any legal consequences, with all fines due to illegal stay waived, pay their plane tickets and start a new life in home countries.

How many can sleep well after reading the news? This is the long-awaited light at the end of the tunnel. The application for such visa amnesty or leniency period will run hopefully this 1st August to 31st October of 2018. So those who are having visa problems can reboot their lives by fixing their visa status without fear of repercussions (no fine, no legal issue) -- strictly within the period so announced.

How many will stay here, settle their visa status, and go on chasing then finally living their dreams? How many will leave the country to be reunited with their families?  Definitely all of them will be like birds from their cages taking their lives back, flying freely again, breathing fresh air and viewing the blue sky in a different vision.

With all foreigners' visa status in order, strongly backed up by the local people, the country will attract many great minds and investments.  Human resources are the greatest assets of companies and country. They can do better maximizing their talents and time if they are protected from the risks of abuses due to vulnerability and the base of such protection is the legal residency wherever they are.

Another good news related to this that restores our faith in humanity -- the UAE cabinet led by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, has adopted a resolution that will grant those who suffer from wars* and natural disasters a one-year residency visa, 'regardless of their condition of residence'.  This special or humanitarian visa will also cover those who find it difficult to go back to their countries due to challenging political turmoil in their homeland. The move is in line with the country's  commitment 'to stand by most vulnerable and needy people of the world as an active supporter of international peace and stability'. The refugees will have a chance to transform their lives until they are ready to go back to their home countries again.

Indeed God does not sleep and He puts things in proper places. In the next months to come, we see the country shapers passionately making things happen as swiftly as possible for those with visa problems as well as those victims of wars and natural disasters, by pressing a switch upward, from 'vulnerable' to 'stable'. 



*War-torn countries - including Syria, Libya and Yemen


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Photo credits:  Pixabay

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