UAE: Restaurant offers free meals for visit visa holders, jobseekers

UAE: Restaurant offers free meals for visit visa holders, jobseekers

A restaurant in Sharjah has been offering free meals to the poor for eight years and now it provides free meals to people who are on a visit visa as well.

“People who are jobless, or on a visit visa, or whose visas have expired can come to our restaurants in Muweilah and Saja, Sharjah, and we will provide them with a free meal. We offer this service to people in need, irrespective of any country they belong to. We receive people mainly from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Africa who lose a job and run out of money. They can come to us and just tell us that they’re on a visit visa and don’t have money,” said Shahid Asghar Bangash, owner of the Karachi Star Restaurant.

“We don’t have any terms and conditions for such people. They can order anything available on that day. We’ve also set a code word among restaurant workers for such people so we ask the staff at the restaurants to place an order for them so that it doesn’t hurt their self-respect and nobody else in the restaurant also comes to know about them,” he said.

This is one of the many eateries that have been offering