NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

Housing and utilities use up 40% of income

ABU DHABI - FEB. 03: The average household spends nearly 40 per cent of its income on housing and utilities and 14 per cent on food and drink, a new Ministry of Economy survey has revealed.

The results of the first nationwide expenditure and income survey were released yesterday, compiling data from 15,000 families from the second quarter of 2007 to the end of the first quarter of 2008.

Sultan bin Saeed al Mansouri, the Minister of Economy, said in a statement that the figures would help the UAE meet statistical requirements of international organisations such as the World Bank.

“The results will support decision-makers in implementing developmental plans and formulating socio-economic polices,” Mr al Mansouri said.

“The results will help us to further enhance the lifestyle standards of residents in the country through judicious planning, especially in preparing consumer price indices and inflation rates in line with international standards.”

The survey was conducted in accordance with a decision by the Ministerial Council for Services in November 2006.

The report provides economic and social data that will benefit economists, who often cite the lack of timely and accurate statistics for the UAE economy as a challenge to making economic predictions.

However, residents in Abu Dhabi yesterday said housing costs had increased significantly since the end of the survey period.

According to the survey, the average monthly household income during the 12-month period was Dh18,248.60 (US$4,972.37), while average monthly expenditures was Dh11,241.20.

Both of those figures doubled for UAE national households, with Emirati households having income of Dh36,438 and expenditures of Dh22,989.

Non-national households, meanwhile, had an average income of Dh15,074 and expenditures of Dh9,579.

The average household spent Dh5,607 per month on goods and miscellaneous services, followed by Dh4,407 on housing and utilities.

Average monthly expenditure for transportation was Dh1,321.70. For medical care and health services, the average expenditure was Dh160.20.

The average household size is about five people, the survey said.

Emirati households have a family size of about nine people, while for non-Emirati households the figure is about four people.

Emiratis comprised 19.1 per cent of households while expatriates accounted for 61.9 per cent and shared accommodations for 19 per cent.

The survey also took note of the education levels of heads of households, finding that 35 per cent of household heads in the UAE had an undergraduate education while 20 per cent had only a high school education.

Among heads of UAE national households, 22.9 per cent had high school education while 19.9 per cent of them were illiterate. Only 3.6 per cent had a postgraduate qualification.

Other findings show that furniture accounted for 8.04 per cent of expenditures for UAE national households, about double that spent by non-nationals.

Expatriates spent more on education, at 4.46 per cent of expenditures compared to 2.98 per cent for Emiratis.

Residents, Emirati and expatriate alike, agreed yesterday that the cost of living had been increasing.

“Don’t believe anyone who tells you that the cost of living has not increased over the past months. Even the statistics underestimate the increasing costs,” said Khalid al Katheeri, 29, an Emirati father of two.

He spends almost Dh6,000 a month on rent for his four-bedroom villa, a figure that is around 30 per cent of his income, but he does not have to worry about utilities because they are paid for by the Government.

Nevertheless, “everything has become so much more expensive now; food, housing, education keeps getting costly and it is worrying”, he said.

But he said there is an upside to the situation: “Dowries have become cheaper, as a result,” making it more financially viable for Emirati men to get married.

Mr al Katheeri’s second biggest expense is food, which he attributes to large feasts that Arab hospitality is known for.

Minette Van Der Bijl, a Namibian teacher who moved to Abu Dhabi from Bahrain almost two years ago, says that she would not have been able to afford housing had her employer not provided her with it.

“The increase in the cost of living is dramatic. The salary increases haven’t kept pace with inflation,” she said, “but I worry about people who earn less than I do, like the security guards. I don’t know how they cope with the situation.”

Ms Van Der Bijl, who lives alone, said almost 40 per cent of her household income was spent on food, mainly because she bought groceries for her daughter and because “the cost of fresh food and groceries are so expensive here”.

Ms Van Der Bijl has been able to save money by using buses rather than taxis, a free service that was launched in June.

Maritheo and Ludetete Fernandez, a Filipino couple with a newborn, moved to the city almost two years ago.

Both work as civil engineers at a local firm and made the move “for better job opportunities”.

Even with two household incomes, Mrs Fernandez said increasing costs had forced them to tighten their budget.

“We spend almost 25 per cent of our income on housing and utilities, but the situation is not very bad because it is subsidised by our company,” she said.

The second biggest expense for their three-member family is food, as they are forced to eat out often because there is not enough time for cooking.

End of the road for taxi service

ABU DHABI - FEB 03: For 18 years Nafees Ahmed has been fixing the meters and mending the top-lights of Abu Dhabi’s familiar white, gold and green taxis, and painting the numbers on their sides.

He has become an institution among the drivers, who affectionately refer to him as Nafees chacha, an Urdu term that means uncle.

He operates one of only two workshops in the capital providing these maintenance services, a business that has flourished sufficiently to pay for the education of his five children.

But a change in taxi regulations means the old style is being phased out to make way for the new, silver versions, and Mr Ahmed’s business is drying up.

Five years ago, he would service 15 to 20 taxis a day. Now he is down to just three or four.

“My business is dying because of the cancellation of the taxis, but that is not to say the rest of Abu Dhabi is not flourishing,” he said. “There are other businesses in this city that are doing very well, just not my shop.”

Mr Ahmed arrived in Abu Dhabi in 1989 from Pakistan where he ran a garage in Karachi and worked as a mechanic. He saved enough money to send three sons and two daughters to English medium schools, and later, university.

“No one else is there to support them,” said Mr Ahmed, who cannot remember his birth date, but believes he is in his 40s. “I have to afford everything. In this time I have been here, I have done it all for them. Even for my girls. They are educated.”

Three years ago, before changes to the taxi industry were announced, Mr Ahmed brought his son, Farizan Nafees Ahmed, from Pakistan to help at the shop.

Then, in Sept 2006, came the new law dictating that privately owned licences would no longer be issued and drivers of the white, gold and green taxis could not renew their taxi licences. TransAD, the emirate’s taxi regulator, is working to phase out existing old taxis. Those with licences that were issued in the past five years will remain in service until it expires – May 5, 2012 marks the last day the final white, gold and green taxis will be allowed to operate.

“There is constantly this worry,” said Mr Ahmed. “What we’ll do afterwards. Hopefully I can arrange something for my son too.”

They do not have the option of servicing the new taxis because, according to Mr Ahmed, all the work from electrical to paintwork is done in-house.

Ismail Khan, a driver from Pakistan, is a relative newcomer compared to the stalwarts who usually visit Mr Ahmed’s workshop.

“He is known among us as the one who does the best work,” he said, waiting for Mr Ahmed to fix his meter. “I was clueless for six months till another driver told me where to go for meter repairs.”

Mr Ahmed’s services cost between Dh10 (US$2.72) and Dh100. The higher charges are for complex meter work, which involves punching in encoded text so the name of the driver will appear on the bill.

Gulsamad Khan, from Waziristan, Pakistan, recently had his licence cancelled after driving a taxi for eight years. He believes as a white, gold and green driver he will not get a new one, even though he knows the region well.

“The new guys, they think Muroor is too big a street,” he said. “I know the smallest of houses all the way to the Saudi border.

“There are silver taxis lying idle all over the city. They say there are no drivers. That is not true. We are drivers and there are drivers in the city but they don’t want us.”

Mr Khan has not given much thought to what he plans to do now that his taxi driving days are behind him.

“We’ll leave it to God,” he said. “I hope I can get a licence to drive a minibus.”

Mr Ahmed has kept himself so busy he had little time to pick up other skills. As his business steadily slows, he finds himself with more and more spare time.

“I just sit on that chair outside my shop and watch the road,” he said.

Seizing UK fraudster’s ill-gotten gains

DUBAI - FEB 03: In what British law-enforcement officials call “landmark” UAE-UK co-operation, an investigation is progressing here into the legitimacy of local assets owned by a British resident serving time for one of the biggest money laundering frauds in UK history.

Craig Johnson, 35, was sentenced in 2006 to 12 and a half years in prison, although British reporting restrictions prevented details of his case from being made public until now. After accomplices of Johnson were imprisoned in September, the true picture emerged of the outwardly respectable businessman.

Investigators say they believe Johnson’s assets in Dubai may be even more valuable than those already seized in the UK, which totalled more than £6 million (Dh31.5m).

Customs officials in the UK seized Johnson’s helicopter, yacht, luxury cars and mansion, all of which were found to have been purchased with the proceeds of crime. At one point, Johnson owned several properties across Dubai, as well as a luxury car dealership and a professional racing team.

“It is fair to say that, as extravagant a lifestyle as Johnson lived in the UK, we firmly believe the lifestyle he lived out here in Dubai was as extravagant, if not more so,” said Euan Stewart, criminal investigations director with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the UK.

Investigations into other assets are continuing, with officers keen to establish whether any of his properties in the UAE were, in fact, bought legitimately. Although there is an extradition treaty in place between the UAE and the UK, there is no formal process for recovering the proceeds of crime. Investigators are hopeful, however, of recovering millions of pounds that Johnson has been ordered to repay the British government.

The court records show that Johnson was part of a gang that imported and exported mobile phones between companies owned by gang members, with value added tax (VAT) being kept illegally at every stage of the proceedings. The profits of the VAT fraud were then filtered through a series of bank accounts and business transactions.

The phones were imported – at least on paper – VAT-free from various EU countries. In many instances the phones did not even exist. The paperwork showed they had been sold on more cheaply, but with VAT added, through a chain of companies known as “buffers”. Sham invoices were issued.

Once the goods had been sold a number of times they would be re-exported via a corrupt freight forwarding company. The exporter would then claim a credit from the British customs department for the VAT paid on the purchase of the phones, and the company that “imported” them would disappear when its VAT bill was due to be paid.

While the fraud was being carried out, Johnson boasted of owning a major car dealership in Dubai. Company records show that Johnson still owns a 12-per-cent share in the dealership, and an employee said he believed Johnson was still owner. No one else at the company would respond to questions about Johnson.

In 2002, Johnson spent £1.75m to establish a Dubai rallying team, Protrak World Motorsport Management, and competed twice in the Middle East Rally Championship. But when he was detained in the UK in 2003 and his string of investments unravelled around him, his workers, mostly from the UK, found themselves abandoned in Dubai. The team disbanded soon afterward, and most of the staff have left Dubai.

Drivers, staff and management who worked for Protrak all declined to be interviewed for this article.

An associate of Johnson’s in Dubai said: “He had private jets and helicopters and whatnot and there are not many expats who have that. Back then, four or five years ago, it was a smaller community, and the big fish seemed even bigger back then.”

He said most people in Dubai had “no idea” about the extent of Johnson’s fraud, and that rumours of Johnson’s imprisonment emanating from the UK had reached only a few people Johnson knew in Dubai.

In June 2006, Johnson was one of seven men imprisoned in the VAT scam after an eight-month case at Birmingham Crown Court. The scam cost the UK government £68 million (Dh359m) and led to a five-year inquiry by British customs officials. Details of the case emerged only after another VAT fraud case in which Johnson was implicated ended in September.

In November, Wolverhampton Crown Court, which was hearing the HMRC claim for reimbursement, ordered Johnson to pay a further £26m he was found to have made through money laundering, or face another 10 years in prison. He was ordered to pay £8m of that sum within the next year. Mr Stewart said: “This result is down to the excellent co-operation we had from the UAE on a federal level and, in particular, from the Central Bank.”

He also paid tribute to the “landmark work” carried out by diplomatic staff in the UAE on creating an extradition treaty between the UAE and the UK, which will facilitate the investigation of money laundering in the country.

Cameron Walker, a law enforcement co-operation counsellor with the British embassy in Abu Dhabi, welcomed the more general efforts to catch British VAT offenders living in the UAE.

“There are elements in the UAE – the ministries, banks and police – who are now working very closely with us and realise the extent of the problem,” he said.

“The co-operation of the Central Bank, the police and the Government has been tremendous when you consider it is not a UAE problem.”

Police free women from traffickers

DUBAI - FEB. 03: Three Indian men have been arrested for allegedly imprisoning four women in a flat in Al Muraqabat and forcing them into prostitution, in the emirate’s second known case of human trafficking this year.

Col Khalil al Mansouri, director of Dubai CID, said officers rescued the women, one from India and the other two from Bangladesh, several days after they arrived in the country and were locked in the flat. They are all said to be in good health.

“It started from when they were back home where the ring of traffickers made them believe they were going to come to Dubai to start a decent job,” he said.

Col Mansouri identified the suspects as SS, KK and AS, all Asians.

He said police were acting on a tip-off, but did not disclose further details about how the suspects were captured or how the women were rescued. They are being cared for by the Dubai Charity Association, a non-governmental organisation that provides emergency help to people. In many cases of human trafficking, gangs recruit women in developing countries with promises of good jobs abroad such as as nannies or shop clerks. When the women arrive in the country, however, the gangs take away their passports and force them into prostitution by threatening or beating them, or worse.

“The suspects take advantage of the fact that the girls are in a strange country and that they do not speak any English or Arabic. In the majority of cases found, those involved came from Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh or from Eastern Europe,” said Capt Ahmed bin Hadiba, head of the police department’s anti-human trafficking section.

Police say this is the second group of suspects arrested for human trafficking in Dubai this year. They revealed that last month officers arrested two men who were allegedly running a brothel in Satwa.

The suspects were holding six women, two Bangladeshis, two Indians, a Filipina and an Indonesian, against their will.

The latest arrests also follow a directive by Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, the head of the UAE National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking, last week to police and judicial authorities to vigorously pursue suspected human traffickers. Capt bin Hadiba said Dubai Police made arrests in 16 cases involving human trafficking last year.

“There were 16 cases last year and 49 suspects charged. Most victims are between 23 and 28 years of age, but we had younger women that were 19 and 20 years old.

“The women don’t receive any of the money. They are kept imprisoned and the doors will always be locked. They are not allowed to go out and someone is always put on watch.”

Also yesterday, two Indian men appeared before the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance in connection with a raid on a brothel in an Umm Suqeim villa in July 2007.

The main suspect, identified as SB, 40, pleaded not guilty to slave trading, illegally detaining 11 women and running a brothel. His co-defendant, a cook at the villa, another Indian identified only as HQ, 57, also pleaded not guilty to criminal complicity.

According to prosecutors, SB, confessed to receiving money from customers and doing the bookkeeping. However, he claimed that another man he identified only as Manoj owned and ran the brothel, and said he was paid Dh1,000 (US$272) a month to help manage it. He testified that Manoj brought women to the villa and forced them to work as prostitutes.

Police became aware of the brothel when one of the women, an Indonesian national, escaped through an open window and sought refuge with her consulate in Dubai.

She was taken to police, filed a report, and then guided officers to the villa where the other 10 women were being held captive.

There, they arrested HQ, the 10 women, most of whom had run away from their sponsors, and an undisclosed number of customers. They also recovered a book of accounts and some cash.

The case has been adjourned until Feb 16 to allow the defence time to prepare its case.

The head of the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children, said the charity last year helped dozens of victims of human trafficking. “In the last year and a half we have received less than 50 women and children victims of trafficking,” she said.

“They come from many different parts of the world, but they all have the same story. In our shelter we have high numbers from Uzbekistan and Bangladesh but some come from Iraq, Syria, Morocco.”

Lights replaced after high-speed crashes

ABU DHABI - FEB. 03: Road crews are replacing hundreds of light bulbs, some of which burnt out four months ago, at Khalifa City B’s roundabouts.

There had been a months-long dispute with a contractor over who was responsible for changing the bulbs along Road 16 and its four roundabouts. In that time, several high-speed crashes destroyed the roundabouts’ reflective warning signs, making them even more difficult to see.

One resident claims to have seen eight accidents in six months at the roundabouts.

The municipality is upgrading the nine-kilometre stretch of road, a six-lane motorway connecting Khalifa City A and Khalifa City B.

A source at the municipality’s road maintenance department said the street lights had not been replaced earlier because of a dispute with a contractor employed to maintain them.

“The electrical contractor contracted by the municipality several months ago said it was not his responsibility to change the bulbs and as a result, sections of the road have been unlit,” the source said. “That problem has now been solved.”

A series of skid and impact marks at the roundabouts indicate there have been a number of crashes.

Miteb Hamjan, 25, has lived in Khalifa City B for six months and says he has seen eight accidents at the roundabouts.

“I remember four months ago a brand-new, top-of-the-line Lexus passing my car at well over 170kph as I was approaching a roundabout,” Mr Hamjan said. “Moments later, the Lexus hit the roundabout head-on and was catapulted into the air, landing on top of the roundabout and sliding back off.”

Mr Hamjan said the driver “miraculously was not injured, but the car was totalled”.

He said the roundabouts were difficult to see: “At night and when conditions are foggy especially, it is hard to see the roundabouts.”

Dr Jihad Awad, the chairman of the Mafraq Hospital emergency room, said several people had been injured at the roundabouts.

“We have had several patients brought into the emergency room as a result of the vehicles they were in striking the roundabouts,” Dr Awad said. “The accidents usually happen in the morning or when conditions are foggy.”

An engineer with the roads maintenance department said the road upgrades were a part of continuing work on the Khalifa City B road network.

Camper’s death plunge was ‘tragic accident’

ABU DHABI - FEB. 03: The death of the British schoolteacher who fell from a precipice in Oman has been described as a “tragic accident”.

Sacha Hopkins, 47, died on Friday night after falling 30 metres while on a camping trip with her family and a group of friends on the Oman-UAE border, near Hatta.

The group had set up camp in a remote area close to a wadi, said a statement issued yesterday on behalf of her family.

“At around 10.30 that evening, Mrs Hopkins left the campfire to go to the toilet and did not return,” it said. The group of five families spent 30 minutes searching for her, before eventually finding her body at the bottom of a sheer rock-face. Omani and Emirati rescue crews were called in, but according to police, she died instantly.

“Ultimately nothing could be done for her and it is certain that she died instantly from falling over the edge of the rock face in the dark,” the statement read.

Mrs Hopkins was described as an “experienced camper” who was familiar with the area.

A longtime resident of Dubai, Mrs Hopkins had lived in Jumeirah with her husband Mark and children Alice, 15, and Billy, 12, for eight years. She had been working as a primary schoolteacher at Kings’ Dubai.

“Everyone who knew her and whose lives she touched has been consistent in their praise of her positive attitude to life and she will be greatly missed by the community,” the statement read.

The Hopkins family is preparing to return to the UK for the funeral, while a memorial in Dubai is being planned for a later date.

Overseas gang cons Etisalat customers

DUBAI - FEB. 03: Police are working with Pakistani authorities and Interpol to track down a gang trying to defraud Etisalat customers with bogus promises of big cash prizes.

Members of the gang, which they suspect is operating from Pakistan, are said to be calling people and telling them they have won up to Dh1 million (US$272,000) from the telecoms company.

Posing as Etisalat employees, the callers tell customers they must purchase so-called eVouchers, or recharge cards, for between Dh50 and Dh500 to claim their prizes.

The fraudsters then ask the customers to read them the recharge number over an internet phone line, otherwise known as a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

The gang, which sometimes also asks for personal bank details and other information, is then able to re-sell the real recharge numbers. The use of a VoIP line makes it more difficult for authorities to trace their location.

Khaleel Ibrahim, the deputy director of Dubai CID, said the department’s recently formed electronic crime investigations unit was working on the case with authorities in Pakistan and the international police organisation Interpol.

“We urge people to report such incidents as soon as possible as this new phenomenon reaches the UAE,” he said.

“This is an international problem and is now beginning to occur in the region, but with awareness campaigns we can reduce the number of people that fall victim to it.”

Authorities noted that the fraudsters sometimes have names, addresses, phone numbers and credit card details of people before they call.

On Saturday, Etisalat warned its customers in a statement: “Etisalat has learned that some fraudsters posing to be Etisalat employees are calling Etisalat customers in an attempt to defraud them.

“These pranksters are using numbers originating from Pakistan, asking customers to either transfer credit, or share their PIN number or provide personal information, to claim a huge cash prize.

“Etisalat cautions its customers to pay attention to such bait calls and advises them not to divulge any confidential information like bank accounts, PIN or eVoucher/recharge card numbers to unknown callers on the phone, SMS or e-mail.”

An Etisalat spokesman suggested the gang was just dialling numbers at random.

“They definitely don’t have access to a customer database and are just dialling numbers randomly as they generate them.”

Most cases go unreported, he added.

“A lot of people feel embarrassed and don’t report instances when they have been defrauded of the amount of an eVoucher worth a few hundred dirhams, but those who have come forward on our complaints line have been those who have been asked for their credit card details.

“Etisalat promotions are well advertised in the media and the winners are informed through a standardised process. In case of any confusion, customers should call 101 and verify the calls/SMS they have received.”

Telecoms providers in Saudi Arabia have issued a similar warning to their customers.

Fines doubled for illegal taxi drivers

DUBAI - FEB. 03: Fines for people driving unlicensed taxis have more than doubled in Dubai, with those caught now also facing the threat of deportation.

Jawad Sajwani, the director of franchise and enforcement for the Roads and Transport Authority’s public transport agency, said 13 people were deported last year for driving illegal taxis.

Mr Sajwani said fines of Dh2,000 (US$544) for a first offence and Dh5,000 for a second had been increased to Dh5,000 and Dh10,000 respectively.

“This phenomenon inflicts material losses on private franchise companies providing a legitimate taxi service,” he said. “The crackdown resulted in higher levels of compliance on the part of the public. It was noticeable during the campaign that [picking passengers up from the side of the road] has gradually disappeared and the public has stopped assembling at places where that was rampant.”

Ashraf Khan drove an illegal taxi in Dubai until last year, when he was caught for the second time and threatened with deportation.

Mr Khan said the fines the police were now handing out had made it impossible to continue his trade, and that unlicensed drivers were only trying to make a living.

“The first time I was caught I got fined Dh2,000; the second time I was fined Dh4,000 and told I could be deported if they caught me again,” he said.

“Now I hear stories of people being fined Dh10,000 and having to leave the country. I only used to make Dh2,000 to Dh4,000 a month, so I had to borrow from friends in order to pay my fines and continue sending money home.

“People have difficulties if they do not get a high enough salary or their wages are not paid on time, so what should they do? They are not hurting anyone.

“Rather than steal, it is better that they provide a service for the public. My customers always used to complain that there are not enough taxis in the city.”

Mr Sajwani denied there were not enough taxis, and said people should be more flexible with their travel arrangements.

“There are 7,200 legitimate taxis in Dubai and we are adding more and more,” he said. “Soon there will be around 8,000, plus there are limousines. There is also a very nice bus service, but not enough people use it.

“In London, a bus will not take you directly to your doorstep but people use it; here they don’t. It is a cultural thing and we are trying to change that and persuade people to use more public transport.”

Mr Sajwani said illegal taxis could give tourists a bad impression of the city, with drivers picking up newly arrived travellers at the airport who did not know how much a journey should cost.

“My mum arrived for a visit from Germany just last week and got in an illegal taxi when the driver told her it would be cheaper than a normal airport taxi,” said Dubai resident Leweke Schiff.

“He ended up charging her Dh150 to go from the airport to Old Town, near the Burj Dubai. Normally that journey costs around Dh60. He helped carry her bags up to the apartment, but it was still a lot to pay.”

In Abu Dhabi, the taxi regulator TransAD said the number of inspectors had recently been increased from 14 to 17. There were another 14 inspectors in Al Ain.