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| ETIHAD A380-861 A6-APH (CN 199) |
A Etihad Airways cabin crew member who recently lost his job in a wave of redundancies because of the COVID-19 pandemic says he faces being sent to jail because he can no longer afford the repayments on a $100,000 loan used to invest in Bitcoin at the height of the cryptocurrency craze. The 34-year-old French national says he is expected to pay back $2,230 every month until the end of 2021 to clear the 338,000 Dirham loan. Unlike many countries, failing to repay a debt is a criminal offence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where debtors could be sent to jail for up to three years. The British charity, Detained in Dubai (which helps in criminal cases across the UAE) say they have witnessed an uptick in what they describe as “aggressive” tactics from banks which include criminal enforcement. In the past, expat residents had fled to their home country to renegotiate debt in relative safety but Radha Stirling, the chief executive of Detained in Dubai says there’s been an “upswing in the amount of Interpol threats” for expat debtors who return home to avoid unpaid loans.
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