ABU DHABI // Crimes against Arabian Gulf nationals visiting or living in London increased by 30 per cent last year, with hundreds falling foul of thieves, robbers or burglars.
Figures provided by the Metropolitan Police, the body responsible for law enforcement in Greater London, revealed that between April 1, 2014 and the end of March 2015 there were 428 victims of crime who came from the GCC compared with 329 in the previous 12 months.
Philip Parham, the British ambassador to the UAE, said that despite the rise, GCC nationals made up only 0.06 per cent of victims of crime in London.
“This is a smaller proportion than the proportion of GCC nationals in the London population,” he said. “In other words, GCC nationals have a lower chance of being victims of crime than the rest of the London population.”
The National requested a breakdown of crimes against GCC citizens in the last three years using the Freedom of Information Act UK following two separate and highly-publicised attacks on Emiratis within two weeks in London last spring, including three Emirati sisters who were bludgeoned with a hammer in their hotel room, for which Londoner Philip Spence was sentenced to life in prison.
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What is the Freedom of Information Act?
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 in the United Kingdom provides public access to information held by public authorities.
It does this in two ways; public authorities are obliged to publish certain information about their activities and members of the public are entitled to request information from public authorities.
The Act covers any recorded information that is held by a public authority — such as government departments, local authorities, state schools and police forces — in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The government first published proposals for freedom of information in 1997. In the white paper Your Right To Know, the government explained that the aim was a more open government based on mutual trust.
The main principle behind freedom of information legislation is that people have a right to know about the activities of public authorities, unless there is a good reason for them not to such as it would cost too much or take too much staff time to deal with the request, if releasing information would be contrary to the Data Protection Act, or if the request fails public interest arguments.
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Commander Mak Chishty of the Met said the attacks understandably raised concerns among GCC citizens.
“However, these types of offences remain extremely rare and there is no evidence that visitors from the GCC are being targeted,” he said.
“We are proud of the improvements we have made to tackling crime in London, which remains one of the safest major capital cities in the world.”
“We hope that visitors will gain confidence from our efforts and we look forward to welcoming the seasonal influx of visitors from the GCC at this time of the year.”
The FOI figures revealed a breakdown of victims recorded as a national of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE over the past three years while living or visiting London.
Overall, theft was the most recorded crime last year, making up 266 of the 428 crimes.
According to the FOI data made available to The National, this was followed by violence against a person (72), 43 robberies (theft with violence), 35 burglaries and five sexual attacks. Seven were uncategorised.
Looking specifically at the UAE, 55 Emiratis were victims of crime last year, compared to 34 the previous year.
Of the 55, 28 were victims of theft, 13 were the victims of a violent attacks, eight were victims of a burglary and six were robbed.
Overall last year, violent crime against GCC residents reflected one of the biggest increases year-on-year, rising to 72 incidences from 54 in 2013-2014.
However, Comm Chishty said this could be attributed to a change in the way violent crime was recorded in London and more accurate crime recording.
He said the Met was not complacent, saying the force has put concerted efforts into tackling violence as well recruiting 2,600 more officers last year.
The Met worked with hotels providing crime prevention advice and also with Gulf State embassies, listening to any concerns they may have, he said.
On April 6 last year, Spence entered the suite of the three Emiratis, Khuloud Al Najjar and her sisters Ohoud and Fatima at London’s Cumberland Hotel and attacked the women in an incident that made headlines across the GCC.
A second, separate attack two weeks later on April 22 at a rented apartment in Paddington in which seven masked robbers armed with guns and knives attacked a further three Emiratis sent similar shock waves.
The FOI figures found that between April 2012 and the end of March 2013, there were 351 victims of crime from the GCC, 64 of whom were Emiratis. The GCC tally includes 3 uncategorised incidents.
There have been 1,138 victims of crime from the GCC in the past three years, 153 of whom were from the UAE. That overall tally included 76 uncategorised incidents.
The ambassador’s office said there were close to 665,000 visits from Emiratis over the past two years to the British capital.
Mr Parham said the FOI figures numbers showed a reduction of crime against Emiratis between 2012-2013 and 2014-2015 of 16 per cent.
“During this period the number of visits from Emiratis grew more than 23 per cent,” he said.
Mr Parham described London, traditionally a popular European getaway for Arab nationals, as one of the safest major cities.
He said as London was expected to welcome 18.8 million international visitors in 2015 it was “the world’s most visited city”.
“It is so popular with our Emirati friends that the mayor of London has described it as ‘the eighth Emirate’,” said Mr Parham.
“Much effort has been put into keeping London’s millions of visitors and residents safe.
“Since 2008, crime in London has fallen by 18 per cent, and studies – including PricewaterhouseCooper’s Cities of Opportunity report – show it is a safer place to visit than Paris, New York and Beijing.”
jbell@thenational.ae
