Wife fears for husband trapped in Mid East

A Northern Ireland woman whose husband is caught up in a legal dispute in the Middle East has told of her fears if a new hearing goes against him.

Henk Van Rein, 52, is going to court in the United Arab Emirates in a final bid to win permission to leave the country after an 18-month ordeal.

The Dutch-born clothing consultant’s passport is being withheld until a row with his former employers over payments is sorted out.

As he waits for a tribunal, the desperately sick and penniless businessman has been reduced to feeding himself on other people’s leftovers.

His wife, Anne, is flying out to be with him when he attempts to win the bitter labour dispute on Sunday.

She said today: “Henk said he can’t take any more and he could just give up the ghost.

“He is crying all the time and so depressed that he’s beginning to break down. I’m going out there to try and save his life.”

With his health rapidly deteriorating, he has been forced to stay in a cramped and dirty hotel room running up a £7,000 (€10,500) bill.

The ordeal has plunged his whole family into a financial crisis, with their luxury home in Lisburn, Co Antrim, under threat of repossession.

Mrs Van Rein has taken on a teaching job at a Belfast school to pay the mounting bills and send any spare cash to her husband.

The strain has also taken a huge toll on the couple’s three children who are trying to cope with school and university studies while their father is trapped thousands of miles away.

“When Henk spoke to the children on the phone they were all in tears,” Mrs Van Rein said.

“He needs urgent medical attention because he has lost three stone in weight.

“He went four days without eating anything other than dried crusts and taking people’s leftovers in the hotel corridor to make a meal up.”

Fears for his mental state heightened after he sent a garbled and incoherent faxed letter last week.

The businessman’s ordeal began when he lost his £150,000-a-year (€227,500) job in July 2001.

The Indian firm which sacked him is demanding he repays money loaned to him when he helped it set up a factory in Ajman.

But Mr Van Rein claims he was used for his technical expertise before being dumped by colleagues.

If the hearing is settled in his favour he is expected to be handed back his passport and allowed to go home to Northern Ireland.

The family has been angered and disappointed by the response to their pleas for help from both the British and Dutch embassies.

Mr Van Rein left Holland at the age of 17 and studied in Yorkshire before setting up home in Northern Ireland.

His work took him around the world, but he considers himself as much British as Dutch – his mother is Welsh and his late father was a naturalised UK citizen.

The businessman is even registered to vote in the general election there.

Crucially, however, he never obtained a British passport.

Politicians in Belfast have also been lobbying on behalf of Mrs Van Rein.

But Carson McMullan, the Dutch consul in Northern Ireland who has spoken to her, insisted he was unable to help.

He said: “The Netherlands authorities in London have stated this is a civil case between Mr Van Rein and the Dubai authorities.

“There is no role for the Dutch authorities to play.”