Many Muslims give to charity during Ramadan, but now a company is offering prisoners a precious opportunity.
Pure Gold Jewellers has pledged to repatriate inmates who are insolvent.
The company will pay prisoners' airfares and debts of up to Dh40,000 (US$10,890) a person on a case-by-case basis and on approval by the Al Faraj Relief Fund, an affiliate of the Interior Ministry set up to improve the care of inmates.
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The jeweller has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the fund to repatriate 50 insolvent prisoners a month for one year.
It has already assisted 700 prisoners from UAE jails over the past three months, costing about Dh1 million in total.
Prisoners' debts mount because they cannot pay them off, leaving families to struggle.
"No one is taking care of the family," says Firoz Merchant, the chairman of Pure Gold. "The main earner is in prison, which means the rest of the family is in prison because everyone is suffering.
"This is also a burden on the Government in the UAE."
He decided to help repatriate prisoners after speaking to an official at Sharjah Police, who told him that some inmates had debts and could not afford their flights home.
He asked for a list of those affected and promptly paid their debts and airfares.
Mr Merchant then helped inmates in the six other emirates.
The new agreement means the jeweller will now be able to help repatriate prisoners regularly.
But Pure Gold will continue to settle the debt and repatriate prisoners in addition to the assistance it will give as part of the MoU.
Mr Merchant aims to repatriate 1,500 people in the coming year, which will cost about Dh2.5m in addition to the Dh1m he has already spent.
"There is no limit to the fund," he said. "I hope this will give them a second chance at life."
Colonel Ahmed Saeed Rashid Al Badi, the deputy director of financial affairs administration, Ministry of Interior, said it was a "caring gesture".
"We hope more companies in the UAE will come forward to help the prisoners."
