Dubai not to deport Lehman staff: DIFC

DUBAI: Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), where Lehman Brothers Middle East is headquartered, has said the employees of the investment banker will not be asked to evacuate and that expatriates will be taken care of.

"No one will be asked to leave or even face deportation," DIFC Governor Omar bin Sulaiman is quoted to have said yesterday.

Worried bankers from Lehman, which shocked the global financial markets when it filed bankruptcy in the United States, lined up anxiously outside the DIFC's residency visa office two days later, hoping to extend their permits to remain in the emirate.

"This is the DIFC's social obligation towards those people who left their homes in the US and Europe to work in Dubai," said Sulaiman who oversees a financial district where 14,000 people, mostly foreigners, now work.

Foreign workers require a residency and work permit issued by their company to remain in the country.

However, despite Sulaiman's assurances to Lehman's Dubai staff, immigration officials said yesterday that the workers and their families have 30 days to vacate the country.

Lehman's Chairman Richard S Fuld visited Dubai last year to open its Middle East headquarters at the DIFC.