Henk van Rein was stranded in the United Arab Emirates for four years. He tells Róisín Ingle about his extraordinary ordeal
It goes without saying that Henk van Rein missed his wife and three children during his four-year ordeal in the United Arab Emirates. He missed other things too.
"The Irish rain, if you can believe it, I was stuck in the desert all that time," he says. When he was flying into Belfast earlier this week the hoped-for drizzle didn't fall but the sight of green fields was just as gratifying for the Dutch businessman who has been based in Lisburn, Co Antrim, since 1996.
"Driving up the hill to my home was a joy," he says. "This is a beautiful country and I was finally home".
Van Rein has been through the mill over the last four years. He arrived iAjman in the United Arab Emirates in 2001 after an Indian clothing company sought his expertise to start up a manufacturing plant. A garment technologist and clothing consultant with experience throughout the developing world, van Rein expected to be out of the region within a few months. But by July his payments had been stopped and when he put in a claim with the labour authorities the company lodged a counter claim against their employee. His nightmare began.
As the mediation process got under way his passport was seized, preventing him from leaving the country. He moved into a cheap hotel paid for by his ex-employer, but a few months later the company stopped paying and hotel management moved him into the rat-infested servants-quarters of the hotel.
"It was disgusting. The only reason they weren't throwing me out was in the hope that I could pay the bill when the dispute was settled," he says.
At home, his Belfast-born wife Anne and children Katja (14), Henk (16), and Jan (19) struggled to keep going with no money coming in.
After two years he was thrown out of the hotel and given work and an apartment by a Russian contact. "I was not supposed to be working so this was illegal, but I had no other choice," he says.
One night while walking home he came across a man beating a half-naked prostitute with a hammer. When van Rein shouted at him, her attacker fled. He helped her to the hospital. Like in a scene in a movie, the woman was in charge of 250 Chinese prostitutes, gave him her number and told van Rein to call if he ever needed her help.
By May last year he was homeless again. "I was on the streets and as a beggar on the streets there you would be facing jail," he says. He contacted the Dutch consulate as he already had several times during his ordeal. "I told them that I was going to be forced to seek shelter with Chinese prostitutes if they didn't help me. They would not give one penny to help one of their own," he says.
Suffering from ill-health - he had lost six stone and his arthritis was worsening - van Rein made a call to Lulu, the woman whose life he had saved, and took refuge in her working house which he describes as a shock to the system.
"I don't know what I expected but my idea of prostitution was Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman," he says. He was sharing a bedroom with two women and every time they had clients van Rein had to leave the room to go into a nearby kitchen. "It was a scrupulously clean environment but I just didn't want to be there. I felt so dirty and was horrified to be in that position," he says.
He was in the kitchen when a row broke out between the prostitutes and four sailors. "The next thing I knew I was lying on the ground with three stab wounds in my chest," he says. He could not be taken to hospital in case of arrest but was treated privately and recovered.
The committed Christian speaks highly of the women who helped him. "They have an honour which is unbelievable. I have the utmost respect for those people, they taught me humility," he says.
He says the attack proved too embarrassing for the Dutch consulate to ignore and they got in touch with the relevant authorities in Dubai. Van Rein was put in a decent apartment and given food and pocket money. He spent the last six months building up his strength before being allowed home.
A spokesman for the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs responds that since the beginning of the conflict the Dutch consulate in Dubai had provided "useful advice" to van Hein and was fully aware of his case. He stressed the consulate could not have played an active role in assisting van Hein to leave the country as it would have interfered with the legal process in the United Arab Emirates.
Meanwhile, van Rein says: "I feel ashamed to be Dutch . . . I am disgusted at the way I was treated." He is seeking legal advice, but no amount of money could make up for what was stolen from him, he says. "I feel terribly sad that I missed so much," he says. "I left children and came back to grown-ups. Being home feels like a second chance at life."