SHARJAH, UAE: Robert Dobbs, a US Army veteran, alleges that he's been trapped in Dubai for the past five years. The 55-year-old, from Wisconsin, said that he can’t leave over a ‘fabricated claim’ according to which he owes his employer $100K.
Detain in Dubai, which is an organization looking into human rights violations in the Middle East, said, “The PTSD sufferer has been separated from his family for five years, over a fabricated claim that he owed his former employer money where, in fact, he was owed end-of-service benefits.”
What did Robert Dobbs say on his repeated detentions?
The father of five told the human rights group, “It’s like Groundhog Day. Every day I am worried it will be the day I am taken to jail while the false debt is unpaid.”
Dobbs is unable to pay off since the Providence English Private School, to whom he owes money, won't renew his work visa or let him leave the country so he can work somewhere else.
“It can never be paid because I don’t have the money. I am also legally forbidden to get a work visa while the case is open,” he said.
Dobbs told outlet LBC that he went on to teach there because “the economy was a little bit slow in the United States.” He moved to Sharjah, in 2013 with his family and children.
The outlet mentions that he worked earlier at a different school before signing up for an opportunity at the Providence English Private School, where he worked for four years. Dobbs was also promoted and made the head of the department.
According to Insider, once he completed his term in 2018, the school denied him his end-of-service benefit, a bonus for employees completing their tenure, and won’t even release him from his visa.
"I've been stuck in this open-air prison for five years, three-and-a-half years away from my family. I am a veteran with PTSD as well. I'm at the end of my life, basically," the Wisconsin native said in a press release.
Did Providence English Private School take revenge on Dobbs?
Dobbs had sued the Providence English Private School claiming he was unpaid his benefits and a UAE judge ordered in his favor.
But later the school filed a civil suit against Dobbs, alleging the 55-year-old owed $100,000 in tuition for his four children. They attended the same school where he worked, as per Detained in Dubai.
