Beggar held in Dubai with Dh300,000
Dubai divided into zones for Ramadan campaign, tourism companies told to scrutinise visas
Tourism companies told to be vigilant as beggars come to the UAE on visit visas during Ramadan
Dubai Police recently arrested a beggar with Dh300,000. He had conned people into giving him money by claiming that it would be used to build a mosque outside the UAE, officials said yesterday.
In another incident, police arrested three people and seized Dh30,000 in cash from them. They were also collecting money using the mosque ruse.
“Most of the beggars were visitors. They come during Ramadan for easy money as they know UAE is a rich country and people always sympathise with beggars. We have a team of officers to crack down on beggars,” Brigadier Mohammad Rashid Bin Sari Al Muhairi, deputy director of Criminal Investigation Department of Dubai Police, said during a press conference in Dubai Police headquarters yesterday.
Crackdown
As part of an anti-begging campaign during Ramadan, the police have divided the city into different zones based on the concentration of beggars in an area.
“We have divided the city into green, yellow and red zones. We can send more patrols to the red zone, which means many beggars are spotted in the area. The yellow zone means fewer beggars and green zone means there are rarely any beggars,” he added.
Teams from Dubai Municipality, General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) Dubai and Al Awqaf will help police. This year, the police arrested 232 beggars, including 171 men and 61 women. Last year, the police arrested 653 beggars, including 136 women. Since 2016, Dubai Police have nabbed 1,906 beggars.
Captain Mohammad Shihab from GDRFA warned tourist companies to be careful when they issue visas as many beggars come on visit visas. “We always check with tourist companies to be sure when they apply for visit visas for people. Sometimes we close the company if they have violated the rules,” he said.
During Ramadan last year, police arrested 154 beggars compared to 641 in 2016.
Fraudsters
Meanwhile, Brigadier Ahmad Thani Bin Gulaitha, director of Rafaa police station and head of Police Stations Council in Dubai Police, said most of the beggars were Asians.
“Most of them are fraudsters, they come during Ramadan on visit visas and loiter around mosques. Don’t sympathise with the beggars, instead give your help or money to charity organisations in the country,” Brig Bin Gulaita said.
Officers usually check if a beggar really needs money or is just pretending to be poor before punishing the person with one month in jail to be followed with deportation and confiscation of the money. Police also warned people against begging on social media.