Ajman clampdown on illegal immigrants a success

There were more than 1,200 fewer crimes reported in reported in Ajman last year, a drop of 12.2 per cent compared to 2012, figures from the emirate’s police have shown.

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SHARJAH // An Ajman Police campaign to reduce the amount of crime in the emirate – which includes arresting illegal immigrants – is taking full effect.

There were more than 1,200 fewer crimes reported last year, a drop of 12.2 per cent compared with 2012, police figures have shown.

And Sheikh Sultan Al Nuaimi, deputy director general of Ajman Police, put most of the credit on the crackdown on illegals.

“Campaigns arresting illegal residents have contributed much to the lowering of the crime rates in the emirate,” he said. “Most of the crimes were committed by illegal residents because most of them have no jobs and others are on wanted lists for past crimes.”

Ajman Police launched a year-long clampdown on illegal residents with about 70 officers assigned to inspect businesses and even call at resident’s homes to demand documents from families to prove their residence status.

During the launch at the start of the year, Brig Ali Alwan, commander in chief of Ajman Police, said 30 to 40 people were arrested on a daily basis and the force was increasing the capacity at rehabilitation centres where illegals are held while their documents are processed for deportation by the department of residency and foreign affairs.

In 2013, 8,899 crimes were reported in the emirate, down from 10,138 the previous year. Financial crimes such as bounced cheques continued to top the list of offences for both years, with 7,521 cases in 2013. But even these were down from 8,567 the previous year.

Crimes committed against individuals also dropped from 803 cases in 2012 to 638 in 2013. However, crimes that threatened the country’s security increased to 70 last year, up from 63 in 2012.

The number of traffic offences on the emirate’s roads also fell, something Sheikh Sultan, attributed to the presence of police patrols in residential areas.

“There were also several awareness drives by police on several media and social networks that warned residents to stay away from crime,” said Sheikh Sultan.

Sheikh Sultan said work on the Dh7  million Al Manama police station, which is being built by the Ministry of Interior, is almost finished and due to be handed over in the coming few months. Work is also under way on a new Ajman Ports police station for which Sheikh Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi, the emirate’s Ruler, has allocated Dh5 m.

ykakande@thenational.ae