‘We cannot fend for ourselves in Mumbai’

Forty-seven-year-old Singapore national Zainab Yousuf, 47, and her Japanese husband Tetsyo Hiryama, 62, are struggling to make ends meet in Mumbai.

Despite of battling with illnesses, the couple came to the Bombay High Court on Thursday with hope of taking a flight back home soon. The couple was acquitted of charges of illegal possession of drugs in January this year. They say they are stuck in the city as the Foreigner’s Regional Registration Office (FRRO) has ignored their requests for an exit permit.

“It is very difficult. We don’t know anybody here and we are not even young to get jobs and fend for ourselves. We are taking help from friends and family in Singapore, but I don’t want to depend on them anymore,” Yousuf told DNA. She added that she has two married children in Singapore and an old mother.

Yousuf said that she has undergone two surgeries for breast cancer and Hiryama, who is not fluent in English, also suffers from ailments including amnesia and a dental problem due to which he is unable to eat.

“We have limited funds and my husband insists that I should take medical treatment. I tell him that he should get his dental problems fixed first. We have a different sort of an understanding between us,” said Yousuf.

Talking about her plight, Yousuf broke down. “We just want to go back home to Singapore. We had everything there,” she said.

She said that there was a death in her husband’s family in Japan recently but they could not attend the funeral as they were not permitted to leave India.

Their advocate Ayaz Khan said, “Yousuf is doing some social service work. She delivers food sometimes, some people pay her while others don’t, so there is no fixed source of income for the couple. They are struggling everyday.”