A Punjab-born businessman settled in Dubai has been helping Indians stuck there return home.

Surinder Pal Singh Oberoi, 69, has varied business interests. He has helped people languishing in prisons despite completing their terms because they did not have the money to buy a ticket to return to India. He has helped transport the bodies of labourers whose families couldn’t pay to bring them back.

Oberoi was in Calcutta earlier this month at the inauguration of a not-for-profit hospital.

“Many Indians are doing low-paid jobs in Dubai. If they fall sick and die or if there is a fatal accident, their families often cannot arrange money to transport the bodies. After I come to know about such incidents, I contact the family, buy a ticket, and do the necessary to transport the body to the deceased’s native place,” Oberoi told Metro during an interaction earlier this month.

“The first time I paid for the transportation of a body to India was in 2015. As word spread, people now contact me if they come to know of any Indian whose body needs to be transported back home,” he said.

Oberoi said that he used to bear all the costs initially, but for the past few years, the Indian Embassy has partly reimbursed him for the expenses.

The plight of Indians languishing in Dubai’s prisons despite having completed their term also moved the businessman-cum-philanthropist. “Many poor people are languishing in prisons after being convicted of some crimes, often very petty ones. They stay in prisons even after serving their terms because they do not have any money to buy tickets to go home. Among them are some who have also lost their passports,” he said.

Oberoi said that Dubai’s laws mandated that any foreigner must leave Dubai on completion of the prison term and cannot work there again. “As these people did not have the money to buy tickets to India, they were languishing in prisons after serving their terms. Some of them had also lost their passports,” he said.

Oberoi uses his contacts to prepare Indian passports for those in need. He then buys tickets for those who cannot afford them so they can return to India.

Oberoi’s philanthropic work also includes “funding the higher education” of hundreds of students and running schools for children with special needs.

All philanthropic work is done through the charitable trust Sarbat Da Bhala, registered in New Delhi. “We do not accept any donations. The profits from my businesses are used in the trust’s works,” he said.

Back in Dubai, Oberoi’s businesses included two buildings rented out to labourers engaged in various projects. “About 2,100 labourers stay on rent,” he said.

Among others, he has a construction business and a company that trades in spare parts of hydraulic jets and water pumps.

“I have made a lot of money as a businessman, but I want to give back to people,” he said.

Oberoi started as an automobile mechanic and moved to Dubai in 1976 after working in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir for a couple of years.

He returned to India a few years later, married, and returned to Dubai in 1993.

Earlier this month, Oberoi was in Calcutta for the inauguration of the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, a not-for-profit hospital being jointly run by the Liver Foundation,
West Bengal and the Gurdwara Sant Kutiya on Harish Mukherjee Road.