60,000 illegals caught in Dubai over 15 months

Dubai’s law enforcers and border guards have seized more than 60,000 foreigners who tried to sneak into the UAE in search for jobs and some of them arrived dead because of unsafe transport means, according to police.

Some of those captured had been deported from the UAE and tried to infiltrate back 10 times with the help of foreign gangs seeking quick profits without consideration to the intruders’ lives, the police said.

The seized intruders included women and children and some of them had tried to sneak into the country through the sea or dangerous mountain and valley routes.

Police figures showed 60,345 foreigners were captured in 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 as they tried to infiltrate into Dubai.

“Some of them were found to have been deported and have tried to sneak back into the country 10 times….some of those have committed more than 27 crimes,” Dubai’s assistant policed commander Major-Gen Khalil Al Mansouri said.

Quoted by Emarat Al Youm daily, he said the intruders tried to come to Dubai through the sea, airport and land border, adding that they included 974 women and children.

“We have found children with women and men trying to enter the emirate illegally…we normally deal humanly with the children because of their age,” he said.

“There are foreign gangs outside the UAE organising such illegal activities…they try to tempt these persons with the prosperous life in the UAE and seek large sums of money in return for smuggling them across the border.”

He said one of those captured by border guards was found to have spent only about eight hours in his home country after he was deported before trying to sneak back in.

“While he was deported again, this man told police that he would try to come back to the UAE again and again because he cannot live away from it,” he said.

The paper quoted Lt Colonel Ali Al Shamsi, director of the counter-infiltration department, as saying smuggling gangs resort to “inhuman” ways to get migrants into the UAE, adding that some of those intruders have arrived dead.

“Some of them died because of unsafe smuggling means….others arrived exhausted and were arrested as they knocked at doors of some houses to seek food…many of them spoke neither English nor Arabic and only pointed at their mouths to show they are hungry after walking long distances in mountains and valleys across the border.”

He said three Asian illegal migrants were hidden inside a petrol tank aboard a boat but were found dead when the boat was seized by UAE coast guard.

“The captain told police that he just forgot them…police found a piece of bread and a small water bottle with them inside the tank.”
 

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