Man held for clearing infectious blood for visa

An employee at a government clinic has admitted in court to falsifying blood test results to help people with infectious diseases renew their visas.

The 33-year-old Indian defendant, who appeared in court with three other defendants, said he used to charge applicants Dh1,000 each to replace their blood specimen with that of a healthy person.

The defendant would withdraw an extra quantity of blood from disease-free applicants and place the extra blood in test tubes tagged with names of patients who had paid him.

He would do this on the late night shift.

After sending the blood samples to the lab and receiving the results based on the disease-free specimen, he would send the results to the administration department, which issues a fitness certificate to be used for residence visa processing.

Another defendant, a Pakistani, admitted that he paid the employee Dh1,000 because he had hepatitis B, and was afraid that he would not get his residency visa.

He told prosecutors that his friend suggested he contact the second defendant, a Pakistani, who could arrange a fitness certificate for him.

He said he called the middleman who demanded Dh3,500, and took him to a typing centre near the Muhaisnah medical centre, where he got his application printed and registered.

He used the certificate to get his residence visa renewed.

The two middlemen also admitted their role in bribing the government employee.

The first was the one who met the applicants and collected their documents and money, while the other, who worked in a cafeteria near the clinic, delivered the applications to the government employee against Dh500.