United Arab Emirates to Shia Muslims: 'You need to exit'

My uncle, Zaffar Abbas, is a husband, father of three children and one of thousands of Shia Muslims who was deported by the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) government in the past few years.

According to the American Foreign Policy Council, it is due to the fear of Iranian meddling, as well as possible links to Hezbollah that the UAE has been treating Shia Muslims “harshly.”

The Shia from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Libya were closely monitored and considered “politically unstable.” At times, they were also refused entry permits into the UAE.

The UAE is a predominantly Sunni Muslim state, currently ruled by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Abbas, 43, and his family moved from his birth place in Karachi, Pakistan to the town of Karama, Dubai in 1980.

According to Abbas, his neighbours were from diverse nationalities including Pakistani, Indian, Egyptian, Palestinian and Sri Lankan.

As Abbas describes, he grew up with “a fairly good standard of life, education and indifference to various nationalities, religion and culture.”

Initially, Abbas said his family was planning to stay in Dubai for only 10 to 15 years but after looking at the better standard of life, security and opportunities of earning a decent livelihood, they started seeing Dubai as their home.

They were so comfortable in Dubai that, even after his father passed away, he and his siblings invested all their money in buying a home. This was something they never thought of doing in Pakistan..

After major events like 9/11, Abbas, a former bank department manager, said he noticed that social circles were being dictated by people’s nationality, religion and professional position.

He also said that “western-educated” people were favoured and foreigners weren’t allowed subsidies anymore.

In 2014, Abbas said he noticed that some of his colleagues at the bank were being asked to leave, not only from work, but also the country. No reasons were provided.

“All I could see were dejected and depressed faces. I could also see anger in [a] few of their faces as if to say, ‘we gave your country our sweat and blood and is this how you treat us?’” Abbas said.

Later on, Abbas found out that it was not due to any violation of the country’s laws or performance issues, but because of the discrimination against people who belonged to the Shia faith.

According to The Congressional Research Service’s 2017 report, Shia Muslims are permitted to “worship and maintain [their] own mosques” in the UAE, but they have been refrained from commemorating religious events both openly and privately in fear of being deported.

In January 2015, Abbas was called by the bank’s human resources to take his passport and go to the Ministry of Interior.

Upon hearing this news, Abbas said his wife was “shell shocked” because this is what people usually hear just before being deported.

“I was still unprepared and unable to accept that this could happen to me,” he said.

The next morning Abbas took his passport to the Ministry of Interior, where he also found some of his colleagues.

“All I could see were dejected and depressed faces. I could also see anger in [a] few of their faces as if to say, ‘we gave your country our sweat and blood and is this how you treat us?’” Abbas said.

While waiting for his name to be called, Abbas said he recalled his time spent in Dubai and wondered why he would be asked to leave.

Abbas said he didn’t commit any criminal offence, only performed basic religious activities such as praying and fasting, which wasn’t enough to be labelled a fundamentalist.

In early 2013, the media reported authorities giving 125 Lebanese citizens, a majority of them being Shia, one week to leave the UAE without stating a reason why.

After one week, the government of the UAE took away all property registered in their name, according to the United Arab Emirates 2013 Human Rights Report.

On that day in January, the officer took Abbas’ passport and went through the pages. Abbas said the officer looked at him coldly and told him, “you need to exit [the UAE] in seven days.”

The next thing Abbas saw was the "cancelled” stamp on his visa page.

When he asked why, the officer repeated that he needed to leave.

UAE Visa cancellation stamp on Abbas' passport

“I implored that I have debts which I need to settle with bank, [and] my children’s academic year is only half way through,” Abbas said. “All he had to say was, ‘you need to exit’.”

He then decided to take his family back home to Pakistan.

Abbas’ children did not know the language. “My heart just sank, not for myself, but for my wife and children,” Abbas said. “How will they adjust?”

When his wife found out, Abbas said she told him that if they were deported because of their faith, then it would be because of that same faith in God that they would be able to get through this tough time.

Abbas had seven days to sell his property, cars and pull his children out of school.

“I kept wondering as to what kind of humans are these who impose such kind of laws and restriction with no respect to any feelings whatsoever,” he said.

According to Patrice Dutil, a politics and public administration professor at Ryerson University, the UAE government doesn’t have a Charter of Rights and just like any other country, has the right to deport whomever they want.

However, Dutil also acknowledged the human rights issue presented through deportation. “The UAE is not known as particularly a respectful entity in terms of human rights,” he said.

Najjaf Sajjad, 35, currently works as a planning engineer for oil and gas projects in the United Kingdom and said he has friends who have been through similar experiences.

According to Sajjad, one of his Shia friends had been doing business in the UAE for five years and was called by immigration authorities who told him he had one month to leave the country.

Sajjad added that his friend had to sell his entire business and, when he tried to reapply for a visa to enter the UAE, he was banned indefinitely. Again, no reason was provided.

“Many people also left the country voluntarily to other places, as they were having fear of being asked to leave [at] any time,” said Sajjad.

In yet another case one of Sajjad’s friends, who worked in oil and gas contracting, was also asked to leave without being given any reason.

“People were asked to bring their passports to the police station. They go there and hand over their passports and were given one month or two week’s notice to leave. My friend had to leave [the] country and find job elsewhere,” said Sajjad. His friend is now living in Oman, but was forced to go without a job for around four months.

Two years later, Abbas and his family are settled in Pakistan. He currently works as a banking relationship manager, but said that life in Pakistan is too chaotic for his children to completely adjust.

There are safety concerns as well that can influence how his children adapt. In fact, the number of people gunned down in Pakistan increased by 32 per cent in 2017, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies.

After these experiences, Abbas said he has lost faith in living in a foreign country and doesn’t want to go through the “uncertainty and the embarrassment” of being deported again.

“The act was complete disregard to humanity,” he said. “I now think, what did I gain out of giving 35 years of my life to Dubai?”

Photo via Pixabay/Bilal EL-Daou

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that the president of the UAE was Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. This is incorrect as the UAE is ruled by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The article has since been updated. JHR regrets the error.