Dubai: Police officers and counsellors working with the Dubai Police’s victim support programme say they continue to help people piece their lives back together despite a surge in help requests year over year.
Colonel Rashid Abdul Rahman, Director of Crime Monitoring Department of Dubai Police, said the programme fielded 107,060 requests in 2016 as compared to 86,642 in 2015.
Requests for help involve myriad issues ranging from family spats and spousal assault to family counselling and keeping the lights on when families hit dire financial straits.
In one of those cases, an Indian woman asked Dubai Police to help stop her physically abusive husband from beating her without having to lodge an official complaint.
“He used to beat her and she didn’t know what to do. She asked for police help and we called the husband and asked him his reasons and he claimed that his wife suspected that he was cheating on her. He said that such behaviour made him lose temper and assault her,” Colonel Rahman said.
Dubai Police spoke with the couple and provided them with necessary advice and their marriage survived.
In a second case, a woman called police to inform about a maid suffering from abuse and late payment of salary by her sponsor. Police questioned the sponsor who confessed that she had been abusing her.
“The sponsor apologised for her behaviour and paid the maid her late salaries and ticket to return to her home country.”
The programme also helped an elderly woman who had been staying alone in her house without electricity with nobody to take care of her.
Police cooperated with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) to provide electricity to the house and assigned a person to look after her and take care of her personal matters and needs.
“The programme is a social system and is like a safe shelter for the victims and help seekers in Dubai. We follow up with the victims until the case closes. It’s part of the UAE Year of Giving,” Colonel Rahman said.
The programme provides female patrols to escort the female victims to courts if they need and personally visit the houses of female and child victims.
How the victim’s support programme works
When a case is registered or police are alerted about an accident, the programme contacts the victim within seven working days and help him/her through until the case is closed.
It follows up the victims’ needs and provides psychological support and visits the victims’ houses.
Call 901 for more information about the Dubai Police’s victim support programme.