DUBAI // A man who was preparing to board a flight from Kyrgyzstan to Dubai has been arrested after security staff found four rare falcons in his suitcase.
Initial reports mistakenly identified the suspected smuggler as an Emirati, but the press office at Manas International Airport, near the capital, Bishkek, yesterday confirmed that he was an Iraqi.
"He was carrying saker falcons, they are restricted," said an official. "Our employees watching the X-ray screen saw the falcons in his baggage and called national security and he was arrested."
The falcons were discovered on Monday and the suspect remained in custody last night.
The saker falcon is a large bird that has long been a favourite among Arab falconers.
It is listed as vulnerable in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species and the number of birds in the wild is decreasing. Protected under international law, it also appears in Kyrgyzstan's red book of rare and threatened species.
The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi is involved in an Dh8.6 million breeding project designed to safeguard the population of falcons in Mongolia.
Dr Elsayyed Mohamed, the programme manager at the Dubai office of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said Kyrgyzstan was one of the established routes through which saker falcons are brought illegally to the Gulf.
A smuggler transporting the birds to Dubai without papers issued under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) would break two federal laws.
"Smuggling falcons in a suitcase is a violation of Law number 11 of 2002 regarding the monitoring of the international wildlife trade if he carried them without Cites documents," he said. "Second, it is a violation of Law number 16 of 2007 regarding animal welfare because he was not importing the birds in proper conditions."
The flight time from Bishkek to Dubai is about 3 hours and 45 minutes.
"We have seen cases like this before and mostly the falcons die or are left in a very bad condition and die later," said Dr Mohamed. "A bird in a suitcase on a three to four-hour flight will mostly not survive and even if it survives it would be expected to die within the next few days."
He said it was difficult to say how much the falcons would have fetched on the black market.
"A smuggler always expects high prices but there is a lot of variation in this. It depends on the age, the training, the health … a lot of things."
"We've seen cases of smuggling involving precious falcons and cases where people have tried to smuggle falcons that have no value at all because they are not suitable for falconry."
Ayesha Kelaif, an Emirati who runs the Dubai Animal Rescue Centre in Al Barsha, said: "People who smuggle wildlife through airports are greedy and selfish - they have no passion for anything, they only want to make money.
"It's an animal, so don't chuck it in a suitcase. You wouldn't chuck your children in a suitcase. It's disgusting."
csimpson@thenational.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
