Failed Entrepreneurs Flee Dubai, Fear Debtor Prison
June 29th, 2009Via: Telegraph:
A British entrepreneur has fled the financial crash in Dubai leaving behind hundreds of thousands pounds in debts.
Simon Ford, who founded a “gift experience” company that prospered in the United Arab Emirates’ boom years, said he had been forced to escape as he feared being sent to debtors’ prison under strict bankruptcy laws.
He is one of thousands of British and other expatriates who have lost work and businesses and are leaving Dubai as it experiences its worst crisis since the UAE’s founding 40 years ago.
One bank has predicted the city’s 1.4 million population could shrink by almost a fifth. More than 85 per cent of its population is foreign.
Financial planners fear a second wave will get under way this weekend as parents who have lost jobs but waited for the end of the school year follow younger professionals to the airport.
“We know there are people out there who have been hanging on by the finger nails to the end of term,” said Clive Pierrepoint, a spokesman for Taaleem, a company which runs international schools including the Dubai British School.
Related: Foreign Workers Abandoning Vehicles by the Thousands at Dubai Airport as They Flee the Country
Research Credit: Lagavulin
