I love that this became a mainstream news story and then a few days later this lady was freed. That's the power of journalism, people.
That was Tuesday.
And now this:
A 21-year-old New York City college student, who spent five "hellish" months in the United Arab Emirates over an altercation at a Dubai airport has been freed, an advocacy group said.
Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos, a Lehman College student in the Bronx, was detained in June and charged with a year sentence after she was charged for allegedly assaulting and insulting an airport security screener.
If you remember, Elizabeth had some trouble at the Dubai airport with a waist compressor she was supposed to wear after a recent surgery. Security had her take it off, but didn't help her put it back on, and even laughed at her for it. When she called for a friend and "gently touched" an airport security guard's arm, she was put on a no fly list, fined $2,700, and then later sentenced to a year in prison.
But after help from the advocacy group Detained in Dubai, she's coming home five months later.
"Elizabeth boarded her flight home to New York late Tuesday night," Detained in Dubai, an organization that provides advice and legal assistance to foreigners in the United Arab Emirates CEO Radha Stirling said in a statement.
Yeah, the problem is so bad that there is an organization that exists solely for getting trapped visitors out of the Middle Eastern "paradise."
"The news that her sentence would be commuted was a welcome end to Elizabeth's hellish 5 months in Dubai that left her humiliated, traumatized and out of pocket US $50,000"...
$50,000 out of pocket.
That's outrageous!
"A judge previously ordered she pay a fine of around $2,700, which she did and that could have been the end of it. The customs officers weren't satisfied though. They appealed the sentence and told her they wanted to see her in jail. The vindictiveness of accusers is largely driven by the likelihood that they will be offered compensation to drop the case," Stirling said. "The government of Dubai should forbid workers from accepting compensatory payments as it only encourages workers to make false allegations. Dubai's justice system is routinely misused to extort victims and it's about time the US state department updates its travel warnings to reflect this common practice.
Just a helpful reminder that the values system of individual rights and objective justice doesn't exist in most places.
According to Detained in Dubai CEO Radha Stirling:
The recent high profile cases of Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos and Tierra Allen serve as public media examples of what happens in Dubai on a daily basis. The leadership has spent billions on marketing a glamorous city to international audiences, relying wholly on the naivety of visitors and investors to bring in the dollars.
At the same time, the leadership has done very little to make the venue safe for the very people they lure in. Tourists are vulnerable to vindictive, false and unevidenced allegations that could leave them languishing in notorious jails. They are vulnerable to extortion schemes like we see from airport staff, rental car agents, taxi drivers and so on. People like social media influencer, Tierra Allen, have taken to warning fellow citizens to avoid Dubai at all costs. Elizabeth has already spent US$50,000 and been sentenced to 1 year in prison. For many tourists, it's a one way ticket.
Man, they're nasty over there in Dubai.
But if there's one thing they hate, it's losing face!
Glad you're coming home, Elizabeth, and glad we all know where not to go, or even layover, on our next trip abroad.
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