Indians flee Dubai as dreams crash

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Mumbai/DUBAI - JAN 14: It's the great escape by Indians who've hit the dead-end in Dubai.

Local police have found at least 3,000 automobiles -- sedans, SUVs, regulars -- abandoned outside Dubai International Airport in the last four months. Police say most of the vehicles had keys in the ignition, a clear sign they were left behind by owners in a hurry to take flight.

The global economic crisis has brought Dubai's economic progress, mirrored by its soaring towers and luxurious resorts, to a stuttering halt. Several people have been laid off in the past months after the realty boom started unraveling.

On the night of December 31, 2008 alone more than 80 vehicles were found at the airport. "Sixty cars were seized on the first day of this year," director general of Airport Security, Mohammed Bin Thani, told DNA over the phone. On the same day, deputy director of traffic, colonel Saif Mohair Al Mazroui, said they seized 22 cars abandoned at a prohibited area in the airport.

Faced with a cash crunch and a bleak future ahead, there were no goodbyes for the migrants -- overwhelmingly South Asians, mostly Indians - just a quiet abandoning of the family car at the airport and other places.

While 2,500 vehicles have been found dumped in the past four months outside Terminal III, which caters to all global airlines, Terminal II, which is only used by Emirates Airlines, had 160 cars during the same period.

"The construction and real estate industry has been hit following the global slowdown and the direct fallout is that professionals working in the realty industry are rapidly losing their jobs," said a senior media professional, in-charge of a realty supplement in Dubai. "In fact, my weekly real estate supplement usually had 60% advertisement and ran into 300-odd pages. In the last seven weeks, it's down to 80 pages and with fewer advertisments," he added.

Mumbai resident D Nair (name changed) had been living in a plush highrise in Sharjah for the past four years. However, the script went horribly wrong when his contract was terminated. Nair used all his credit cards to their maximum limit, shopping for people back home. He then discarded his Honda Accord before returning to India for good. Nair, who stays in a rented apartment in Navi Mumbai today, has a Rs15 lakh loan with a Dubai bank.

Another such victim of the meltdown said he bid goodbye to his car in a small bylane near the airport and hailed a cab. "I was scared because a number of us were doing the same and did not want to be questioned by the police. There was no way I could afford to pay the EMI of 1100 Dhirams for my Ford Focus," he told DNA on condition of anonymity.

When contacted, the dealer for Asgar Ali cars in Sharjah said, "We are helpless and do not know how to tackle this issue. A large number of such owners are from Indian, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries."

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.a...Economic+Crisis

[MrsCat 6]

That's eerily creepy for some reason.

[mawilson 2,133]

Mumbai/DUBAI - JAN 14: It's the great escape by Indians who've hit the dead-end in Dubai.

[Ban Hammer 14,573]

That's eerily creepy for some reason.

it sounds like the making of a bollywood movie.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

That's eerily creepy for some reason.

?

[MrsCat 6]

Mumbai/DUBAI - JAN 14: It's the great escape by Indians who've hit the dead-end in Dubai.

So not the scene I had pictured in my mind.

That's eerily creepy for some reason.

?

I dunno - just seems like the setting of the beginning to a post-apocalyptic nightmare. Its just creepy to think of people abandoning their cars. Its like the worst has to happen before you're willing to part with it. And I guess for them it did.

[mawilson 2,133]

MrsCat - Image Posting 101?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Its just creepy to think of people abandoning their cars. Its like the worst has to happen before you're willing to part with it.

I remember reading about Indian H1B's who abandoned their cars at Newark airport during the dot com bust.

[MrsCat 6]

MrsCat - Image Posting 101?

I have a very active imagination. Now the picture I posted is mild in comparison to what's in my mind. Add a few zombies hiding behind the cars, and that's what I'm seeing.

[Ban Hammer 14,573]

MrsCat - Image Posting 101?

I have a very active imagination. Now the picture I posted is mild in comparison to what's in my mind. Add a few zombies hiding behind the cars, and that's what I'm seeing.

sounds like nyc.

[Sandrila 1]

that's what happens when everyone starts gettin cocky during the feast

nothing is left for the famine

scary times we live in

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

MrsCat - Image Posting 101?

I have a very active imagination. Now the picture I posted is mild in comparison to what's in my mind. Add a few zombies hiding behind the cars, and that's what I'm seeing.

sounds like nyc.

You're thinking of the NYC from the 70s into the 80s. NYC has been an awesome place to live and work the last decade, thanks to Wall Street. But it will rapidly slide back into the Mad Max type hellhole it once was, now that Wall Street is taking it up the chin again.

[MrsCat 6]

MrsCat - Image Posting 101?

I have a very active imagination. Now the picture I posted is mild in comparison to what's in my mind. Add a few zombies hiding behind the cars, and that's what I'm seeing.

sounds like nyc.

You're thinking of the NYC from the 70s into the 80s. NYC has been an awesome place to live and work the last decade, thanks to Wall Street. But it will rapidly slide back into the Mad Max type hellhole it once was, now that Wall Street is taking it up the chin again.

See now that's a description I can get into. AJ Beyond Thunderdome.

I've never been to NYC, but it seems nice.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I've never been to NYC, but it seems nice.

Visit now before the descent into Mad Max begins!

The outer boroughs will be the first to go!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I left a bicycle in Orlando when I left nuclear power school. So I know how they feel.