Dubai maids committed 1,686 crimes in 3 years

Housemaids in Dubai have committed 1,686 crimes over the past three years, including 272 offences in the first half of 2011, police records showed on Sunday.

The crimes included 18 thefts at their employers’ houses in the first half of 2011, 48 burglaries in 2010 and 51 in 2009, the figures showed.

“More than half the women’s crimes over the past three years have been committed by housemaids,” said Brigadier Khalil Al Mansouri, director of Dubai’s general detectives and criminal investigation administration.

Quoted by the Arabic language daily, he said maid’s crimes involve mostly working for another employer, theft, abuse of children, vice, sorcery, illegitimate pregnancy, and allowing strangers into their employers’ houses.

“Abuse of maids by employers could sometimes push them to revenge by committing crimes that could be dangerous,” he said. “I call on all families to treat their housemaids nicely, allow them to contact their families at home and permit non-Moslems to practice their religious rites…this will help curb crime.”

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