Woman, baby left starving at Dubai airport

An Asian husband dumped his wife and 5-month-old son at Dubai’s airport and boarded a flight to his home country, leaving them starving for two days before they were discovered and taken care by the emirate’s police.

The cruel act by the husband sparked alert among Dubai’s police and human rights authorities, who later managed to track the man and speak to him. He apologized and promised to return on Tuesday and look after his family.

The tragedy began when an airport cop noticed that a European woman of Asian origin and her baby have been there for two days and were not looking well.

When he spoke to the woman, he noticed she was pale and her voice was strangled. Minutes later she collapsed and fainted.

She was taken to the medical centre while police called the human rights department and asked for help to tackle the woman’s plight.

“We found that the woman and her baby have been at the airport for two days and that she has not had food since her husband left because she did not have money,” the department’s director Brigadier Mohammed Al Murr said.

“She was suffering from exhaustion, sleeplessness and hunger…she fainted again and we had to call an ambulance for her….we then brought food to her and milk to her baby and gave her a separate room at our department...she later started to recover and was able to speak,” he told local newspapers.

Women and child protection director Major Shahin al Mazmi said the woman told them she is married to an Asian man, who co-owns a company with another man in the UAE.

He said that the woman had her first baby in Europe and returned to her husband in the UAE, adding that  she had an argument with her husband a few days later.

“The woman said her husband told her he would take her to his home country to meet his family…once at the airport, he asked her to wait so he will finish travel procedures…he went to the counter and never returned,” Mazmi said.

“She had stayed at the airport for two full days without money and food…we tried many times to call her husband but his mobile phone was turned off…we later managed to get a contract number from his partner in Abu Dhabi and phone him to say that he must resolve this problem immediately…he apologized and promised to return on Tuesday after Eid holidays and that he would look after his family.”

Mazmi said the partner asked police not to take action against the husband for his “inhuman behavior” and promised to resolve the problem “amicably.”

“He also provided money for the woman and her baby and moved her to a hotel where she is now staying pending her husband’s return,” Mazmi said.

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