Things not to do in Dubai

Don't be a labourer:

From http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

Every evening, the hundreds of thousands of young men who build Dubai are bussed from their sites to a vast concrete wasteland an hour out of town, where they are quarantined away. Until a few years ago they were shuttled back and forth on cattle trucks, but the expats complained this was unsightly, so now they are shunted on small metal buses that function like greenhouses in the desert heat. They sweat like sponges being slowly wrung out.

Sonapur is a rubble-strewn patchwork of miles and miles of identical concrete buildings. Some 300,000 men live piled up here, in a place whose name in Hindi means "City of Gold". In the first camp I stop at – riven with the smell of sewage and sweat – the men huddle around, eager to tell someone, anyone, what is happening to them.

Don't get into debt:
From http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

Daniel was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

One doctor told him he had a year to live; another said it was benign and he'd be okay. But the debts were growing. "Before I came here, I didn't know anything about Dubai law. I assumed if all these big companies come here, it must be pretty like Canada's or any other liberal democracy's," she says. Nobody told her there is no concept of bankruptcy. If you get into debt and you can't pay, you go to prison.

"When we realised that, I sat Daniel down and told him: listen, we need to get out of here. He knew he was guaranteed a pay-off when he resigned, so we said – right, let's take the pay-off, clear the debt, and go." So Daniel resigned – but he was given a lower pay-off than his contract suggested. The debt remained. As soon as you quit your job in Dubai, your employer has to inform your bank. If you have any outstanding debts that aren't covered by your savings, then all your accounts are frozen, and you are forbidden to leave the country.

"Suddenly our cards stopped working. We had nothing. We were thrown out of our apartment." Karen can't speak about what happened next for a long time; she is shaking.

Daniel was arrested and taken away on the day of their eviction. It was six days before she could talk to him. "He told me he was put in a cell with another debtor, a Sri Lankan guy who was only 27, who said he couldn't face the shame to his family. Daniel woke up and the boy had swallowed razor-blades. He banged for help, but nobody came, and the boy died in front of him."

Don't swear:

Oct 2009. From http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/26/2724118.htm

The family of an Adelaide man detained in the United Arab Emirates for swearing at an official is frustrated that he is still waiting for a court hearing.

Former soldier Sun McKay was arrested at the Dubai airport late last month, after he was accused of swearing at an airport policeman.

Mr McKay could face a three-year jail sentence.

Don't have sex out of marrage or in public:

July 2008. From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/dubai/2275123/British-couple-arrested-in-Dubai-over-sex-on-the-beach.html:

A British businesswoman is facing six years in an Arab jail after apparently being caught having drunken sex on a beach in Dubai.

Update at http://celebgalz.com/michelle-palmer-arrested-for-public-sex-on-jumeirah-beach-in-dubai/

Don't use prescription medication
Sept 2005. From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/southern_counties/4200952.stm

Suffering from a back injury, Mrs Wilkinson - a sports osteopath - had had emergency injections of the drug at a hospital in Dubai.

She did not know the treatment would lead to her being thrown into jail.

For the next two months, she was incarcerated with 100 other women who had been accused of offences ranging from theft to drug crime and prostitution.

During a two-month ordeal of dysentery, flea-infestation and head lice, she was subjected to a nightmare of bureaucracy and weekly court appearances.

Don't carry other over the counter medication

Jan 2008 From: http://users.livejournal.com/_yungfuktoi_/306878.html.

They found melatonin on him, which he bought over the counter in the US. Legally, you can even buy it over the counter in Dubai.

They arrested him, anyway.

He was strip searched, forced to do a urine test and thrown in jail. In their search they dug into the bottom of his bag and came up with a few fragments of dirt, which they allege is hashish, which is totally outrageous. They also claimed that the melatonin was actually drugs, which was equally, clearly absurd.

The sentence if convicted is a blanket four years, with a minimum of six months in prison in one of Dubai's squalid, third world facilities.

After detaining him for three days, the melatonin was determined to be just that, and his urine was clear. Now they've asked for a seven day extension to test the dirt, and we trust that he will be on his way home after that

Don't even go near any drugs

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-512815/Briton-jailed-years-Dubai-customs-cannabis-weighing-grain-sugar-shoe.html

A father-of-three who was found with a microscopic speck of cannabis stuck to the bottom of one of his shoes has been sentenced to four years in a Dubai prison.

A search by customs officials uncovered a speck of cannabis weighing just 0.003g - so small it would be invisible to the naked eye and weighing less than a grain of sugar - on the tread of one of his shoes.

From http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article3333905.ece

Unlike many countries, the UAE will also arrest travellers found with traces of banned substances in their bodily fluids.

Or even some poppy seed from a bread roll. From http://www.independent.ie/travel/travel-advice/the-sunshine-resort-where-three-poppy-seeds-a-kiss-on-the-cheek-or-a-bottle-of-cough-mixture-could-land-you-in-jail-1431663.html

Earlier this year, a Swiss tourist was locked up for four years after snacking on a bread roll at Heathrow. Three specks of poppy seed were detected on his trousers by immigration when he landed in the tiny oil-rich state and before you could say "sun, sea and sand", he was handcuffed and rushed off to jail.

Don't get raped (Women):

Jan 2010. From: http://www.watoday.com.au/world/woman-arrested-for-sex-outside-marriage-after-rape-complaint-pins-hopes-on-hasty-wedding-20100111-m1dr.html

A British woman arrested in Dubai for sex outside marriage after making a rape complaint hopes a hasty wedding to her fiance will result in her being freed, British papers say.

The 23-year-old said she was raped by a waiter at a hotel where she was celebrating her engagement to her 44-year-old boyfriend on New Year's Eve.

But when the London couple reported the alleged rape to police, they were arrested for having sex outside marriage and being drunk outside licensed premises, the Guardian said.

Don't get raped (Men)
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/world/middleeast/01dubai.html?_r=1

Three Emirati men [..] stripped off his pants and one by one sodomized him in the back seat of the car. They dumped Alex across from one of Dubai’s luxury hotel towers.

The authorities not only discouraged Alex from pressing charges, he, his family and French diplomats say; they raised the possibility of charging him with criminal homosexual activity, and neglected for weeks to inform him or his parents that one of his attackers had tested H.I.V. positive while in prison four years earlier.