Police arrest 7 trying to fly from Abu Dhabi illegally
Cases involved both purchase of others' passports and forgery
Abu Dhabi: Seven people have been arrested by police for trying to travel abroad through Abu Dhabi airport on forged passports, police said.
Among the arrested people are three females, including a 15-year-old African girl who entered the country on a European passport which belonged to her cousin who resides in a European country.
Upon interrogation by Abu Dhabi Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the underage girl said her father bought the passport for $3,000 (Dh11,010) from her uncle so that she could travel to Europe on her cousin's European passport.
The girl, identified as N.A. has been detained and taken into custody on charges of impersonation of another person's name and identity.
Jail, not Europe
In another case, a 44-year-old African woman was arrested with a forged passport while she was trying to travel to a European country via Abu Dhabi airport.
The woman, identified as B.D., told police that she entered the country via Abu Dhabi airport on a transit visa using her genuine passport and stayed in a hotel for four days, before travelling to the European country where her husband lives.
She said she bought the passport from a person in her home country.
"Instead of travelling to a European country, I travelled with this passport to a jail," she told interrogators.
In another incident, a 29-year-old European tourist was arrested for using a forged passport and a fake tourist visa to stay in the UAE for commercial purposes.
Another African woman, identified as F.H.M., 21, was arrested with a genuine European passport that did not belong to her while she was leaving the Abu Dhabi airport. She confessed that she had entered the country and stayed for 23 days.
Two Asian men were also arrested while they were trying to leave the country on fake passports.
The CID explained that in most cases of fake passport use, people forge them by removing the pictures of the original holders and replacing them with new ones. The department thanked Abu Dhabi airport authorities for their vigilance and follow-up on such cases, which contributed to the arrest of perpetrators.
