Jobless man buys passport for Dh700 to go home

Immigration officials stop him at Dubai airport

Legal and Court Correspondent

Ajobless man, who had no travel documents to fly out to his hometown, has been accused of using someone else’s passport to travel.

Officials stopped the 35-year-old Pakistani man at the passport control section at Dubai International Airport when he tried to exit the country using someone else’s passport in April.

Once the passport controller discovered the difference in the appearance of the true holder of the passport and the person who was travelling, he was stopped from leaving the country.

Police took the Pakistani man into immediate custody. Prosecutors accused the suspect of using a passport that belonged to someone else and impersonating that person.

The suspect pleaded guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday. “Yes I purchased the passport to be able to travel back home,” he told presiding judge Urfan Omar in courtroom three.

When showed a photocopy of the passport that he had been accused of using, he admitted that it was the same travel document.

When questioned by prosecutors, the suspect claimed that he could not travel to Pakistan because he did not have a passport.

“I contacted a countryman who sold me his passport for Dh700 to be able to fly back home. The passport that I purchased had a legal residency and it is an original document.”