Dubai Police help Somali girlchild held at airport with fake papers go home

Dubai Police have ended the ordeal of a Somali girl child who was arrested with her mother at the Dubai International Airport.

The child and her mother tried to travel to the United Kingdom (UK) on a false passport, seeking asylum there.

On humanitarian grounds, Dubai Police have issued identification and official papers for the girl, in cooperation with her country’s consulate.

Dubai Police also purchased a ticket for the child to return home to her grandmother in Somalia.

Brigadier Saeed Hamad Mohammed bin Sulaiman, Director of Rashidya Police Station said that airport security first transferred the mother and the girl to the police station.

Brig. Sulaiman disclosed that Dubai Police tried to keep the child girl in the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children (DFWAC), but she was attached to her mother.

“Therefore, we were forced to find another option, so we searched for the girl’s relatives inside the UAE, but unfortunately, we could not find any,” Brig. Sulaiman said.

The police then contacted her grandmother in her home country who expressed readiness to receive the girl.

“Unfortunately,” he added, “the child did not have any official documents.”
“So we went to the embassy and coordinated with them until we were able to issue identity papers.”

The Al Rashidya station provided the child with the air ticket to travel to her grandmother.

Brig. Sulaiman said that Dubai police also conducted DNA tests to confirm the child belonged to her mother.

The mother came to the UAE through Dubai International Airport on a transit flight from Somalia to Bahrain and then to London’s Heathrow Airport, using a forged travel document.

“The airport staff noticed that the name on the passport belonged to a boy.”

The mother attempted to hide the child’s femininity by shaving her head to look like a boy.

After being confronted, the mother admitted that her passport was fake and that she got it from her homeland in order to travel to the United Kingdom for the purpose of obtaining political asylum.

emirates247.com