'Only requirement was to pass health check'

Dubai: In January 1970 Sergeant Major Khalfan Salim Khalaf joined Dubai Police because there weren't many other jobs available for those looking to make a living.

"Anyone who was looking for a job approached Dubai Police. In fact, Dubai Police would go on recruitment drives to bring more people in as they were trying to set up the police force. They would often approach young men, give them a job description and ask if they would be willing to join," said Khalaf.

"Back then, there were few people living here. There wasn't much. Most people would move to neighbouring countries like Kuwait," he added.

He was 17 when he joined. It was his first job, and 40 years later, it is also his current job.

Khalaf heard about the opportunities with the police and the attractive starting salary of 280 Gulf Rupees it offered after one of his cousins took a job there. "I asked my cousin how I could join so he gave me a piece of paper and told me to take it to the Nayef station," he said. "Their only requirement was that I pass the health check. Unlike now, there were no educational requirements then".

Having received no formal education at all, Khalaf considers himself lucky to have been taken in by the police, retained his job and even being promoted.

There were no identity documents available then either. In pre-union days, the concept of citizenship too was alien to many. Khalaf said that the recruitment drives would only go to Dubai and Hatta close to the border of Oman.

Having had to live in the police premises in Dubai for the first few years, however, was no easy task for the Hatta native.

"We would get four days off per month, in which we would go home. There were four men we knew who owned Land Rovers. We would pay them rent money and they would take us to Hatta, that would take two hours. From Hatta, we would go to our villages on the backs of donkeys. That would take another two hours. Of course, there was no air conditioning back then. But we never complained," he said.