Suicidal tendencies rising across various social strata

Dubai: Police have expressed alarm amid an increase in suicides over the last couple of years. The educational and professional profile of people committing suicide in the UAE is also a cause for concern.

A senior police officer told Gulf News that there has also been a noticeable change in the way people sought to end their lives. "A foreman and and an executive plunged to their deaths from high-rise towers in Dubai in a week's time, while a third suicide incident was registered in Sharjah on Sunday," he said.

In the past, he said, most of those who commited suicide would hang themselves, with labourers and housemaids most likely to take the extreme step. "The three latest incidents indicate that there is a change in the way people commit suicides."

He added that the majority — if not all — suicide cases involve expatriates from the subcontinent.

Brigadier Abdullah Mubarak Al Dukhan, Deputy Director of Sharjah Police, told Gulf News Monday that most people attempting suicides were overwhelmed by life's problems. "They usually hang themselves to get rid of their problems here or back home," he said.

Labourers as a class were most prone to such tragic decisions, Brigadier Al Dukhan said. "We have some cases in Sharjah of people who jumped from buildings, including schoolchildren," he said.

Prosecution risk

Domestic helpers usually commited suicide by jumping from windows or balconies of buildings, he said. "The cases of maids who commit suicide have come down due to the decrease in the number of housemaids in the country," he said.

Brigadier Al Dukhan said that suicidal people were liable to be prosecuted and faced deportation if their attempt to end their life failed. "Those [people] cause trouble to public," he said.

"Some of those who commit suicide leave a note behind to explain why they ended their own life. Some of them do not leave anything, leaving the issue to police to find out if it is suicide or homicide," he said.

"Suicide is against law and Islamic Sharia and also it has a bad impact on societies," he added.

He also sought to highlight the fact that there are people from some Asian countries who tend to believe that they will have a better life after death.

In numbers