Dubai: A tiny, filthy, badly ventilated room with dirty mattresses on the floor is the last place those infected with contagious diseases will see before they are deported.
Rubbish litters the small room, where two cell-like compartments hold men and women.
"Guards standing at the door do not seem to fit in any picture envisaged for a hospital and do not reflect the true caring image of the country and the nation," a patient who was kept there for few days before being deported told Gulf News.
"True, there are laws and regulations to be followed to protect the community from contagious diseases, but who said that it cannot be done in a decent manner," he said.
Expatriates diagnosed with infectious diseases such as HIV are being held in these rooms at Al Baraha hospital in Dubai while awaiting deportation.
Patients said they were "treated like criminals by the ministry" of health.
Bunk beds
Inside the male isolation section at the 40-year-old hospital, at least nine men could be seen lying on bunk beds or mattress on the floor.
On the other side of the separating wall, one Asian HIV positive woman was quietly standing near the small opening of the door in her cell.
One can see a private security guard sitting at the door of the detention area which is locked. And there are two metal doors, each with a small window, which allows staff and sometimes visitors to communicate with the patients or to pass them food.
A European patient who was recently diagnosed as HIV positive when he underwent the obligatory blood test to renew his residence visa said he wasn't at all happy about the way he was being treated.
"I was not told about my illness. I was only asked to come to the hospital and they asked me to enter one room at the hospital for an X-ray.
"When I went inside the room I was locked up like a criminal," he said.
He said he shared the cell with eight other patients.
Another African man detained in the same room said he has been locked up for more than two weeks awaiting deportation.
Instructions
"We are not criminals but they treat us as if we had committed a crime," he said.
Officials in the preventive medicine section in the Ministry of Health said there are instructions from police to detain expatriates diagnosed with infectious diseases such as HIV, Aids and other similar diseases.
"We have instructions from police to lock up expatriate patients.
"We are instructed also not to inform them about their illness," said an official at Al Baraha hospital.
Expatriates
- Expatriates over 18 who underwent mandatory blood tests to renew residence visas or obtain residence visas end up in detention if they have an infectious disease such as HIV
- Aids/HIV positive: deportation
- Hepatitis B 6 categories: also deportation for expatriates
- Leprosy: all expatriates are deported
- Tuberculosis (TB): expatriates receive treatment, then deported
