Patients still held at 'prison-like' institution

Men and women waiting to be sent back to their home countries after testing positive for infectious diseases continue to be held in prison-like cells.

DUBAI // A year and a half ago, health authorities pledged to improve the conditions in which expatriates are held pending deportation after testing positive for infectious diseases such as HIV. However, the situation in at least one secure holding centre in Dubai remains unchanged, with men and women waiting to be sent back to their home countries still being held in prison-like cells. In 2008, Dr Mustafa al Hashimi, the former director of preventive medicine at the Ministry of Health, said the facility was undergoing "repair work" as part of an overhaul of the system that sees expatriates deported if they are found to have diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV. The screening programme for infectious diseases was "under review", he said. Today, patients are still being held in the same "isolation ward" in the grounds of Al Baraha Hospital in Deira, part of a nondescript beige, one-storey building, next to a small cafeteria, Fury Restaurant. According to hospital workers, the ward previously served as a laboratory. The bars on the windows are the only sign from the outside that it is now used for a different purpose. Inside, a lone private security guard mans the door to the main detention area - two cells, one for each gender. Locked metal doors prevent people inside from leaving the facility, but a small window in each door allows staff and visitors to communicate with those being held and to pass them food and water. The cells have bathroom facilities. Inside the male section, men could be seen lying on bunk beds. On the other side of the dividing wall, at least one woman was quietly seated on her bed. A 29-year-old man, who declined to be named, was recently held inside the facility for eight days, before being deported to his native India. He underwent the mandatory blood tests to renew his residency visa before being asked to return to the hospital several days later for another check-up, only to end up in detention - a story echoed by others who previously spent time in the isolation ward. "They told me 'come here, we want to talk to you' and then they locked me inside," he said in a telephone interview from India. "It's looks like a jail. I was scared." The man, who worked as a sales executive in the UAE for six years and is unmarried, was told by an on-duty security guard that he was HIV positive. The man claims he asked to be retested, to no avail. He also claims that in all the time he was detained he did not receive any medical attention. He shared the cell with four other men, including a "very sick" African man, who was eventually removed from the facility after his condition deteriorated. The Indian man is now undergoing medical tests in India to confirm whether he is HIV positive. The Ministry of Health did not to comment on whether there are still plans to upgrade such facilities, including the one at Al Baraha. It also remains unclear how many people in total are being held pending deportation, or where other such facilities are located. As far back as 2006, the ministry promised that holding facilities such as the one at Al Baraha would be improved. At the beginning of 2009, a fully equipped quarantine section at the Medical Fitness Centre in Al Muhaisana was opened for expatriates who failed the compulsory TB test. But it is a far cry from the Al Baraha isolation ward, where little has changed in the past 18 months. [e-mail]