Women detained in Dubai ‘after glass of wine on plane’

[Aridane]

Reading today’s Guardian and came across this.

Swedish dentist travelling with four year old daughter from London to Dubai had a glass of wine on the flight. Taken into custody as had an invalid visa and pending return to UK. Blood test then administered to test for alcohol. As a result of which apparently she and daughter detained for three days and made to clean toilets.

Released on bail, passport confiscated, remaining in Dubai pending hearing in a year.

Can’t do a link as reading a physical newspaper.

Anyone know any more about this? Is there more to it than a glass of wine on the flight and an invalid visa?

Just seems quite odd.

This is only a story because it’s a white British woman in Dubai.

I travel a lot, at times I’m basically living out of airports. I’ve seen countless people get detained in various countries all over the world after being denied entry for whatever reason.

If you handle yourself properly and calmly try and sort things out and agree to go home if you can’t, it’s fine. I was denied entry to Qatar once. I asked if I could make some calls, stood to the side, called the embassy and my workplace, and then had to wait a couple of hours for some paperwork that had been overlooked on my end to be checked over by immigration. No big deal.

If you kick off, and a lot of people do kick off, you’re detained. If you keep kicking off after that, you’ll mostly likely be detained for at least a day, because most normal people see sense after a few minutes and agree to get on a plane home. The people who don’t see sense are obviously concerning to immigration, and they can’t be put on a plane home if they’re still losing their shit and would cause a disturbance.

Expired passport, not expired visa, and she was offered a 96 day visa under her Iranian passport but kicked off about the fees. SHE told the press it was because she'd had a glass of wine. Woman is a moron. There isn't a country in the world who wouldn't detain her for this.

www.thenational.ae/uae/courts/swedish-woman-deported-from-dubai-after-attempting-entry-on-expired-passport-1.759016

*Sorry 96 hour, not 96 day. But who the fuck travels internationally without checking the expiration date on their passport?

There is no overlap between the two accounts of what happened.

What a strange deviation between the accounts

So nothing to do wine what a ridiculous woman and how many passports does one person need 😕

Think English police need to take a tip from them about dealing with drunken idiots.
As for kicking off at immigration in ANY country would be a major no no
Somewhere like Dubai I think she's bloody lucky to be home.

What a strange deviation between the accounts

Not strange if you consider that the first account to reach the media came from Detained in Dubai. They're the Daily Mail of NGO's. Who cares if it's true as long as it gets clicks.

Not before it’s plastered on new sites all over the world.

so from the Dubai statement it is nothing to do with a glass of wine, but someone who travelled on an expired passport and threw a tantrum when offered a solution. I am wondering how she got on the plane at all, presumably with another passport.

rules apply for all, even if you bring a kid.

For some silly reason I thought that because senDetained in Dubai is an NGOmthat it had some worthy status

but someone who travelled on an expired passport

It hasn't been said, but there are immigration laws in some countries that say you must have 6 months on your current passport to be allowed in the country. My DD was actually not allowed on a flight because of this, and I know the UAE enforces this. So she may have had less than 6 months and possibly gave them reason to suspect that she wasn't planning on leaving after 5 days. However, UK immigration should have given her a heads-up about that.

She must have got on in London with her spare passport and knew there would be restrictions soo changed passports maybe tried to charm them and it all just imploded in on her.

it wasn't to do with the alcohol it was the fact that she had an expired visa and then kicked off at the officials which prompted them to check her alcohol level.
if she had a visa and hadn't been rude shed be on a beach right now relaxing.
learn not to be so fucking entitled and you may not get arrested!

So she’s not white (Iranian passport)
She’s not British (just flew out)
And she kicked off because the new visa would cost her more in flight changes back.

And she had an expired passport with a visa (thereby making the visa expired too) and no visa in a second Iranian passport she held.

For some silly reason I thought that because Detained in Dubai is an NGO that it had some worthy status

Not silly at all. "NGO" sounds official but it just stands for Non-Government Organisation. So it could be a genuine charity or it could be a pressure group like the Tax Payers' Alliance. The names are often created to sound politically neutral, but just as often the groups are fairly extreme (both left and right).

As a general rule, don't automatically assume a border control agent who claims someone was kicking off is telling the truth.

"governmental" no "government"

damn my lousy spelling today.

"not" - not "no"

I’m suprised the guardian reported it in a dailymail type way !

Her visa was invalid she refused to leave then started arguing with immigration officials and filming them even though that illegal

That’s why she was arrested

Silly behaviour

That's a bit of a leap, Fiesta - "she's not white (Iranian passport)" - she also has a Swedish passport. Unless you know that no one other than born multi-generational Iranians are the only ones who can acquire an Iranian passport? Which actually isn't the case. So she could have acquired Iranian citizenship.

That isn't a reasonable deduction to make at all.

It’s funny how it’s usually people that have never even been to Dubai that say what an awful place it is

Indeed LardLizard

Fiesta she is white. Detained in Dubai wouldn't have bothered with her otherwise.