Dubai: Dubai Police warns against buying from street vendors selling everything, from bottles of water on intersections to fake products, saying it would encourage more people to get involved in the business.
Dubai Police said most of the street vendors are infiltrators or staying illegally in the country, and they sell their products in narrow districts, near homes and worker accommodations.
Major-General Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs of Dubai Police, said street vending is illegal in the country.
“Most of street vendors are staying illegally in the country and they cause danger. They reflect [an] uncivilised image of the city. If they commit crimes then it will be hard for officers to trace them as there is no data or fingerprints to investigate,” Major General Al Mansouri said.
He added the goods being hawked may have expired or improperly stored, and could be pernicious.
“It is another way of begging and people shouldn’t encourage them by buying their goods. Society must cooperate with police by alerting us [the authorities] about them,” he added.
Lieutenant Colonel Ali Salem Al Shamsi, director of Infiltrators Department in Dubai police, said authorities have arrested 34,881 infiltrators, people staying illegally and street vendors in 2017 compared to 49,205 people in the previous year.
“Among them there were 2,355 street vendors and 1,840 beggars. Recently we arrested three Asian men who were selling bottles of water [at] an intersection [in] Al Quoz Industrial [area]. They enter the country illegally,” Lieutenant Colonel Al Shamsi said.
He added that they arrested eight Asian people who were selling expired and fake food products in the residential areas.
“They were keeping the products in bag and walking around until a police patrol spotted them and were arrested. They were staying illegally the country.”
