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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To have little sympathy for people who've moved to Dubai?

107 replies

VaxMerstappen · 01/03/2026 21:03

Firstly, let me say that say that I am not celebrating the fact that people have been killed in the latest conflict in the middle east in the slightest.

However, is anyone else struggling to empathise with all the influencers etc who for a long time have been lauding it up about how much better life is out there, and are now suddenly missing the safety and security of Blighty?

We have our problems, sure, but at least we're not in the middle of an active war zone. Nor is there much chance of us waking up to missile or drone attacks tomorrow.

It's been fairly well known for years that Dubai is a soulless hellhole with a frankly medieval attitude towards women's rights. Yet people still move there for tax reasons and then seemingly never shut up about how glad they are to have done so.

Maybe this development will make all those people realise just how relatively lucky we are to live in the UK?!

OP posts:
ZenNudist · 01/03/2026 21:17

I agree it's in poor taste to say this. I do know quite a lot of rich people who moved to dubai amd thats looking like a bad idea now, but I don't want them to be caught up in a war.

Cupofteaandagoodbookthensleep · 01/03/2026 21:14

Really!?! They are human beings in a very scary and uncertain situation. Lots of people move abroad to try and better their lives. Just because they chose Dubai or are influencers doesn’t make them any less deserving of empathy in hard times or of safety.

ViciousCurrentBun · 01/03/2026 21:14

Dubai is not for me but this is in appalling taste.

TempestTost · 01/03/2026 21:14

I think the question of whether Dubai is a moral society is not the same as whether people were foolish to go there due to the safety questions.

I may be quite wrong about this, but people I know of who have gone there in recent years seem to have been told that the situation was quite safe and stable. I would be a little sceptical myself, knowing how things have been heating up, but I don't really feel that others are wrong to have taken the assurances at face value.

Yuja · 01/03/2026 21:13

Could there be a way of you personally disliking a country as well as feeling sympathy for those that are out there - for any reason - and might be a bit anxious right now? Your post is in poor spirit

Purpleturtle45 · 01/03/2026 21:08

Geez, not the time!

OnlyMabelInTheBuilding · 01/03/2026 21:07

None of the people I know in Dubai have any intention of coming back.