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Selling the Cayman dream: Desperate migrants shell out life savings in ghost-permits scam
A Compass investigation suggests he is potentially one of hundreds of migrants who have been scammed out of their savings and offered work permits in Cayman for jobs that don’t exist.
| 00:03:19
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Cayman Compass
Selling the Cayman dream: Desperate migrants shell out life savings in ghost-permits scam
When ‘Arun’ collapsed in the doorway of the Victory Tabernacle church in George Town, it marked the beginning of the end of one of the worst periods of his life.
He had arrived in Cayman from rural India, having borrowed against family gold and land deeds, to pay his passage.
The 26-year-old, speaking to the Compass under a pseudonym on condition of anonymity, handed over more than US$10,000 to an agent in his home country. He believed he had bought his way into a stable job in the Caribbean.
Instead, he arrived in Cayman to find there was no work. He ended up destitute, sleeping rough on Public Beach and surviving on slices of bread and peanut butter.
“It was the toughest time in my life, but I could not give up,” he said. “If I failed, my family would lose everything.”
