UAE: Increase in Foreign Beggars Provokes Stringent Action

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Meena S Janardhan

DUBAI, Oct 25 2004 (IPS) - Rashmi Mathur, an Indian housewife living in Dubai, dreads the sound of her doorbell in the mornings when she is alone at home. It is not because of fear. She is just fed-up of constant harassment by beggars.

”Some of them are so well dressed,” she complained. ”You will never suspect that they are out begging.”

The women are mostly dressed in ‘abbayas’ (long black flowing gowns) and the men according to their nationalities.

”At least two such people ring my bell everyday asking for money to buy food or medicine. Some ask for money to go back home but I always turn them away – who knows what they will actually do!” said Mathur alarmingly.

Authorities are, in fact, urging the public to stop giving beggars money in order to discourage the practice.

The sharp rise in the number of beggars, most of them foreigners, is a cause of great concern to the government. Also the number of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nationals among the beggars is a worrisome factor.

According to a Dubai Municipality official, recent surveys have revealed that the majority of the men beggars are from GCC countries.

”In June this year, a band of around 100 beggars from neighbouring GCC countries was seen operating in and around Dubai – the majority of them were Saudis and Omanis, while the rest were Qataris and Bahrainis. Most of these foreign beggars are aged between 20 and 70,” said the official.

According to the official, most of the beggars claim they are in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to eke out a living in order to support their families back home.

”We have heard a few sad stories too – of old parents abandoned by their children and those who came in search of their missing relatives. But many say they stay on in the UAE because people are generous and this helps them to make enough money to make ends meet and send some home too,” he continued.

Women carrying infants and approaching people for help are a common sight nowadays. They either sit outside shops that do brisk business or wander around in shopping malls and even mosques hoping to earn a fast buck.

”Often the child and the woman will be in the pink of health but will have some sob story about husbands who are dead or who have deserted them. The heat or the scorching winds seem to have no effect on them,” said Ali Akbar, a Pakistani who works in a bakery in Sharjah (another emirate).

”There was one woman who used to sit outside our shop regularly with her 10-year-old son and hide behind parked cars and ask for money from our customers. We tried to scare her away many times but in vain. We had to finally call the police,” he told IPS.

In an effort to root out this problem, authorities in the country have launched severe crackdown operations. Begging has been named as a crime and those found begging are arrested and deported. But often it is difficult to arrest these foreign beggars because they tend to act as law-abiding residents when they see the policemen around.

A crackdown operation conducted in just the first week of November last year led to 149 arrests.

While the majority of beggars were men (100), 49 women were also arrested.

Iranians headed the list with 66 (47 men and 19 women), followed by Indians 25 (14 men and 11 women), Pakistanis 23 (15 men and eight women), Bangladeshis 11 (nine men and two women), and two men from Senegal and one each from Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Congo.

Among the Arab nationalities, Jordanians came first with six beggars (two men and four women), followed by five Syrians (two men and three women), three Omanis (all men), and one each from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Somalia.

Said the Dubai Municipality official, ”The police are helpless and cannot arrest them even if they are convinced that they are beggars because they have documents to show that they entered the country legally.”

”They invest huge amounts of money to enter the country and try to make a fast buck by preying on people’s sentiments. Action can only be taken when police arrest them red- handed. They are then deported immediately,” he said.

According to official sources, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is also trying to reduce the number of beggars by helping them find jobs and by placing the elderly in special centres.

If the beggar is a foreigner (which is most often the case) he is deported immediately. In Dubai, a round-the-clock campaign has been launched which includes a team of plainclothes agents from the Dubai Municipality and the Dubai Police. The team includes women authorised to arrest female beggars. Offenders are referred to police stations before standing trial or awaiting deportation.

”We are glad that the authorities are doing these things to curb this unhealthy practice. It has become difficult for housewives to answer doorbells and for us to approach places of worship without being troubled by these beggars,” said Ahmed Al Mansouri, a Dubai national.

”The beggars adopt all sorts of techniques,” said Ali, ”One day I was hailed by a Sudanese driving a ramshackle car. He told me that he had run out of petrol and had left his wallet back home so he needed some money to buy petrol. I refused and walked on. I was later told by my grocer that this was a standard practice and the same man had been seen approaching several people everyday in our locality.”

There are other methods too: tying a cast to an arm or leg, handing out false medical prescriptions, seeking money for fees, and citing unpaid salaries.

But the Dubai Municipality official said the solution was not just arrest and deportation.

”It lies in discouraging them during the act itself even if one feels sorry for them on hearing their stories. We also urge the public to report such cases immediately so that we can reach the scene, apprehend the beggars and take action. The public and the authorities have to work hand-in-hand,” he said.