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28 March 2024

UAE hotel ordered to pay blood money for drowned Emirati child and two maids

Published

A court in Dibba Fujairah ordered a hotel manager and two employees to pay Dh400,000 diya (blood money) to the family of a little Emirati boy and two housemaids after they were found responsible for their death.

The court also fined them Dh500 each for negligence that led to the death of the three-year-old boy and the two African and Asian maids in the hotel’s swimming pool.
 
The incident took place in late October, when an Emirati family from the eastern oasis town of Al Ain went for a short holiday in Dibba and left the three-year-old boy and his sister, 2, with the two maids at the swimming pool.
 
As both children went into the water and screamed for help, their Asian housemaid jumped after them although she apparently did not know how to swim. Her African colleague jumped after her when she saw her body floating on the water.
 
Both maids died while the two kids, Salmeen and Wadeema, were still struggling to survive inside the pool. A European tourist who happened to be passing near the pool jumped in and rescued both children.
 
The two children received treatment in a local hospital before they were taken to Twam in Al Ain, where the boy died later.
 
Their uncle Saeed Al Amri blamed the hotel for the incident in the absence of any rescuers at the pool. Alkhaleej daily said the hotel manager was arrested just after the incident while director general has been summoned for investigation.