Enforcer never receives welcome smile on the job

Dubai: He had to call police once to blast open a house so three children could be taken from their mother and given to the father following a divorce.

But this was just one day's work. On other days, he is stoned, hit by heavy objects and even confronted by vicious dogs while carrying out his duties.

Yaqoub Mohammad Ahmad, 48, an Emirati, who implements the court's orders, still remembers vividly that day when he knocked on the woman's door asking that she hand over her children to her husband following the divorce ruling.

The woman threw heavy objects and then cursed him from behind the window.

Ahmad had to call a special law enforcement squad from Dubai Police who used special explosives to blast open the house door. Policewomen then entered the house and held the mother before the children were handed over to their father.

"This was one of the most difficult and distressing missions I have ever carried out during my four years as a court verdicts' enforcement officer ... our job isn't as easy as many people think.

"We are required to execute court rulings which often expose us to different and sometimes life-threatening dangers and situations... we have to handle all sorts of complicated and challenging situations," Ahmad told Gulf News yesterday.

Once a man let out his Dobermans when he was served an eviction notice at his villa.

Difficult situations

"A couple of my colleagues earlier couldn't execute a court verdict of evicting the man (who was wanted by police) from the villa when they were faced by the ferocious dogs.

"I took the mission, contacted Dubai Municipality which sent a professional team with their special equipment and we successfully restrained the dogs and evicted the man who was arrested by a police squad which were with us.

"Honestly it was a difficult and dangerous mission," Ahmad, a father of six children, told the newspaper.

Ahmad who is senior to all his young colleagues explained that their supervisors train them well to handle difficult and emotional situations and face unexpected reactions.

"We rely on our personal skills, characteristics and experience and capability to handle a dangerous or emotive situation. We have to be unemotional, calm and prudent. Although I admit that sometimes the situation turns dramatic and I find myself crying," he said.

Recalling one incident, Ahmad was once asked to take a nine-year-old boy from his mother and hand him to his father following a divorce order.

"The father, his lawyer and I entered the house. The mother, her two daughters and grandmother faced us and I sat down explaining my mission for hours... in a very touching voice the family asked the father whether he could cut any of his organs and live without them! It was painful and everyone in the room cried. I had to carry out the mission at a later stage," he said.

The mother, her two daughters and grandmother faced us and I sat down explaining my mission for hours... in a very touching voice the family asked the father whether he could cut any of his organs and live without them! It was painful and everyone in the room cried."