Dubai Debacle

November 4, 2009

in Airport Stories

I’ve been to Dubai many times since 1998; my last trip in 2008 was like the rest except this time I’d taken certain precautions.

Many of you must have heard about the extreme punishments dished out to travelers arriving with so called ‘Drugs’, i.e. one man was arrested after he was found to have a poppy seed in the crease of his jacket from a bagel he ate in Heathrow Airport.

So me being a young man who is oft around a lot of ‘second hand smoke,’ I was very cautious over my arrival.

I stood in the line at customs before getting my luggage. I decided to put in some eye drops after having been on an 8 hour flight and no sleep for over 30 hours. Unfortunately they stung my eyes and may have given them a glazed look; however I had my passport stamped and was on my way. Then there was a hand luggage screen.

Usually several items from more than one person go through these right? Y’know the watches, belts, et cetera. However in Dubai they like it one at a time. I made the mistake of hastily putting my sealed liquor bottle on the conveyor with something still going though.

This immediately had me being led aside, and also nice and swiftly past the long line.

I knew this was because the security in Dubai are trained highly in body language and mine was obviously garbled. I confidently asked the security where I could find the Costa coffee shop as I was meeting somebody there. I figured this was a way of showing I had nothing to worry about, which I didn’t, until I found myself in a small room with nothing but a shelf and a box of latex gloves. Jesus I thought, here it comes.

He had me take off my jacket and looked in my shoes. Next he said to pull down my trousers, which I did. There was no hash strapped to my legs. Great. Then he points at my underwear; I hesitate for a moment then just pull down my pants and literally wave my penis at him as if to say “happy now?” He was.

It was as if they knew after my coffee remark that I was innocent and just gave a half hearted strip search as a formality. In all honesty though there was no humiliation. I just showed him my weapon and avoided a torch near my rectum. But I still had trouble believing it was actually happening!

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Cam Tompkins December 3, 2009 at 6:49 pm

Sounds familiar. The fact that these security can just subject anyone they please to a strp-search is total harassment. Granted Dubai in't the only one… battle creek michigan comes to mind.

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