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Avoid a layover in Dubai at all costs

by Jerry Guo (RSS feed) on Feb 8th 2008 at 11:00AM

A British traveler traveling through Dubai International Airport on a layover has just been sentenced to four years in a United Arab Emirate jail.

You're probably thinking he did something crazy like punched a flight attendant, as Iva wrote about yesterday. You'll never believe this: he was arrested for having a microscopic bit of marijuana on the bottom of his shoe.

The marijuana--which is strictly illegal in the UAE--weighed in at 0.003 grams, which is invisible to human eyes. But apparently the custom agents there practice a even harsher form of racial profiling than the American TSA folks.

Here are some more outrageous cases:

One man has been jailed for possession of three poppy seeds left over from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow Airport. Painkiller codeine is also banned.
A 25-year-old Briton who was found with a similar speck in one pocket as he arrived on holiday has been awaiting sentence since November.
A Big Brother TV executive has so far been held without charge for five days after being arrested for possessing the health supplement melatonin.

Filed under: Activism, United Arab, Airports

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Nick Hawkins Feb 8th 2008 11:38AM

I've never had a problem at DXB airport, but I'm as goofy looking as they get.

ANB Feb 8th 2008 12:29PM

TSA racial profiling? Come on! Would you rather have them search boy-scouts and nuns and wave the next Mohammad Atta right through? Give them a break, they're simply doing their job, and they are not arresting people for 0.003g of marijuana.

ShadowGod Feb 8th 2008 2:15PM

.003 grams? Unbelieveable! What a backwards screwed up country. Remind me never to go there.

ouj Feb 9th 2008 5:52AM

I've put Dubai on my "avoid" list as well. Not that it probably matters though.

It's crazy that someone gets jailed for a microscopic amount of marijuana, but at the same time Dubai practises modern day slavery.

Everything in Dubai is built by poorly paid workers from countries such as India and Bangladesh. Job agencies confiscate their passports, so they cannot leave before they've paid out all their debts to the agency (even though it's illegal for the agencies to charge the employers for arranging the job!).

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