Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. The annual British Behaviour Abroad report is out and it’s bad news for Brits in the UAE: despite 30 per cent fewer British tourists visiting the country in 2013 compared to 2012, the number of British citizens arrested in the UAE rose by 30 per cent in the last two years. The UAE is now the fourth most likely country in the world for Britons to “require consular assistance”, prompting the UK minister for consular affairs, Mark Simmonds, to warn holidaymakers to “give more consideration to local laws.”
The British Behaviour Abroad figures, however, don’t specify whether those in trouble are British tourists or British expats. And, given the number of expats in the UAE has remained static at 100,000 over the last four years while the number of tourists has declined from one million in 2012 to 626,000 in 2013, either a higher proportion of tourists is misbehaving, or more expats are getting into trouble.
Misbehaving expats garner little sympathy from me: whatever country we live in, we should make it our business to understand the law. However British tourists to the UAE, while lacking the intricate knowledge of the law that most expats would have, appear to me to be better informed than ever.
Ask anyone in Britain what they know about Dubai and they’re bound to mention “the laws” and how strict they are; how you can get “jailed for kissing” as well as any of those ”sexpat issues” that have been covered in high-profile legal cases. It’s a far cry from the days when I used to be asked if I had to wear an abaya in Dubai, if I could drink, and whether or not I walked 10 steps behind my husband. How then do we explain the steep rise in arrests?
Legal aid group Detained in Dubai says in The National newspaper that drunken behaviour, sex outside marriage, abusive behaviour, road rage and making rude hand gestures are the reasons why most Brits are arrested in the UAE.
So the issue, I think, is not so much to do with black-and-white laws but with the grey area of personal conduct. The expectations for personal conduct in the UAE, from the way you dress to the way you conduct yourself in public, alone, with alcohol in your system and with members of the opposite sex, are far higher than they are in the UK. In England this summer, I’ve been quite surprised, for example, to see how much bad behaviour is tolerated in the name of alcohol. A drunken slanging match, or even a brawl, is rarely recourse to call the police. It’s often laughed off; those involved are “letting off steam” – a few insults are exchanged, a few threatening hand gestures are made, a punch or two might be thrown and everyone moves on.
Not so in the UAE, where threatening others, physically or verbally and even on social media (for which the government has issued a White Paper), is taken very seriously. In the UAE, behaviour that’s widely tolerated in the UK can, especially if coupled with an arrogant, drunken attitude, result in arrest, and it’s in this grey area that most Brits end up in trouble. Don’t be one of them!
Annabel Kantaria is a journalist who’s lived in the UAE long enough to call it home. She’d quite like to ride a camel to work, is totally over gold-plated supercars and keeps both hands on the steering wheel at all times. Follow her on Twitter: @BellaKay; and on Instagram: dubaipix