AJMAN // A police chief has renewed calls for residents to report beggars, even though the number of arrests are dropping.

Lt Col Abdulla Al Matroushi, director of Ajman’s criminal investigation department, said many of the people found begging were repeat offenders and were typically from other Arab countries, having made their way to the UAE illegally via Oman.

“There are beggars who have been arrested five or even seven times, and have not stopped begging,” he said.

“When they beg, they act as if they are dumb, blind or sick.

“The common thing now is for them to enter buildings and knock on apartment doors, often in areas like Al Naimiya.”

The colonel said many beggars he had seen had been smuggled over the border from Oman because they desperately wanted to live in the UAE.

“They are from different nationalities, and the number of arrested beggars decreased from 57 in 2012 to 36 in 2014,” he said.

Col Al Matroushi said residents should not give beggars money because it could lead to other crimes, such as the person giving the money being robbed and the beggar continuing the practice.

He also said that there were many charities to help beggars so the public did not have to.

“Begging is a crime punishable by law, and what concerns us is the safety of the country,” he said.

Ajman residents said most of the beggars they saw were Arab women.

Lebanese foreman Nazih Jihad, 60, said he saw many beggars in streets and residential areas, especially in Al Naimiya.

“The majority of beggars who knock on house doors are middle-aged women from Syria and Palestine,” he said, adding that many of them told stories to stir people’s emotions, for example, that they had fled war or that their husbands were ill.

“They only ask for money and don’t agree to take clothes or food,” he said.

They also stood in front of cars, he said, to prevent them from moving until they got some money.

He also said they sold counterfeit mobile phones.

“Beggars appear in large numbers at the beginning of each month when people receive their salaries,” Mr Jihad said.

Ali Faisal, 19, a business student at Ajman University of Science and Technology, said: “Most of the time beggars come to houses and knock on doors asking for money under the pretext that there is a sick person in the family, and they use poor, sad faces and show medical papers to prove what they are saying.

“If a woman asked me for money, I give her it regardless of whether she is a liar or not because maybe she doesn’t have work and lives in difficult conditions, but if the beggar is a guy in his twenties, I don’t give him [money] because he can work at anything and get money.”

Anas Tanira, 21, a Palestinian mechanical engineering student at American University of Sharjah who has lived in Ajman all his life, said he had not seen any beggars until about three years ago.

“They come to houses twice a week, and they don’t specify the reason for their needs,” he said.

“They just ask for money and start praying for me to give them some.”

“I told one lady, ‘I will give you money but you have to know that there is God between me and you if you are lying’.”

Col Al Matroushi said that the issue was particularly prevalent ahead of Ramadan and that the police were constantly running campaigns to make residents aware of the problem.

“We distribute brochures at banks and hang them on billboards on streets with the contact numbers of police,” he said.

roueiti@thenational.ae