Rolls Royce pickups, free stay: Indian tycoon turns UAE home into war shelter

The facility has hosted tourists and other travellers unable to return home, with luxury cars including Rolls-Royce vehicles deployed to pick them up and drop them at the airport when flights resume.

As tensions in West Asia left hundreds of travellers stranded across the United Arab Emirates, an Indian-origin businessman has converted his farmhouse in Ajman into a temporary shelter, offering free accommodation, meals and even luxury car pickups for those unable to return home.

The initiative has been led by UAE-based businessman Dhiraj Jain, who opened the large farmhouse to stranded travellers after flights were disrupted and hotel stays for many visitors expired amid the regional crisis. According to people staying at the shelter, the farmhouse has been turned into a relief camp providing lodging and food until their flights are rescheduled.

Jain has also deployed 11 cars, including six Rolls-Royce vehicles, to pick up stranded passengers from hotels and other locations and bring them to the shelter. Some travellers are also being dropped off at the airport once their travel arrangements are confirmed.

The facility has hosted travellers from several places, including tourists from Maharashtra and Gujarat, who were unable to continue their journey because of the escalating conflict in the region.

Among those taking refuge at the camp is Mustafa, an Iranian cyclist and traveller who had entered the UAE during a cycling journey from Muscat in Oman. With the worsening situation preventing him from returning home, Mustafa arrived at the farmhouse shelter set up by Jain. Speaking about the initiative, Jain said humanitarian crises are the time when people should step forward to help those in need.

Despite the tense situation in the region, several travellers at the shelter said they were trying to remain calm even after hearing fighter jets and loud explosions in the sky.