British woman detained in Dubai for ‘insulting flatmate on Whatsapp’

File image shows an advert for a vaccination clinic in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Credit: AFP/AFP

A British woman has been arrested in Dubai for sending a “rude” Whatsapp message to her flatmate during a row about using the dining table as a workspace during lockdown. 

The woman, who is in her early thirties and from the south of England, was detained by Emirati police as she tried to leave the country last week and says her passport was confiscated. 

She then discovered that the flatmate, from Ukraine , had filed a police complaint with the authorities over a Whatsapp message she sent, which contained an expletive. 

The Whatsapp row had occurred several months ago, according to the campaign group Detained in Dubai [DID]. 

“When I was told I couldn’t get on the plane and had to go to the airport police office I ran in crying and asked them to please help me,” the woman, who does not yet wish to be identified, said in a message to the Telegraph. 

She added:“The officer behind the desk said he couldn’t help me…even though I was crying in the middle with all my bags. I was terrified.”

“It is mentally and physically exhausting and draining. I feel absolutely helpless.”

It is not the first time that a Briton has fallen foul of the United Arab Emirates’s strict laws on civility and the use of social media. 

Scott Richards, a British-Australian citizen, was detained in the UAE for several weeks in 2016 after he used his Facebook account to promote an unregistered charity. He was released after a media campaign. 

“Complete strangers are able to report social media comments they find offensive to the authorities and, under the laws, they will be prosecuted, fined and even imprisoned,” said Radha Stirling, DID’s CEO and the British woman’s representative in the UAE. 

Ms Stirling added that the explicit Whatsapp message was written to the flatmate “in the heat of a stressful, lockdown-induced household dispute” and that Emirati authorities had overreacted. 

The Telegraph has approached the UK Foreign Office and Emirati authorities for comment.