By Amal Al Jabry

“I was created in the UAE,” were the clear words declared by an African national, holding an African citizenship, when he landed at Dubai International Airport.

“Not born, but created, those were his exact words,” said Hassan Ibrahim, Senior Inspection Officer with Dubai Customs.

Speaking to ‘Emirates 24|7’, Hassan explained how his vigilant colleagues encountered an unusual experience with a particular passenger arriving from an African destination.

“Our inspectors stopped him to search his bags, and they found many extreme items connected with black magic and sorcery.”

He added: “So they informed the duty officer who asked them to bring him over to his office, for further discussion.”

That’s when the officer began conversing with the passenger.

Duty Officer: “How are you? Where are you from?”

Passenger: “I am from here.”

Duty Officer: (Surprised) “What do you mean, from here?”

Passenger: “From the UAE.”

Duty Officer: “Which part of the UAE are you from?”

Passenger: “I was created in the UAE 3,800 years ago.”

Hassan explained that the team was quite startled at what they heard.

“His features and appearance indicated that he was an African national, and his passport came from an African country,” Hassan said and added: “The passenger was speaking in classical Arabic throughout the conversation.”

Hassan continued: “We welcome all visitors to the UAE and treat them courteously and with respect, and with this individual, our team proceeded with caution because they wanted to make sure what kind of person they were dealing with.”

Several ideas came to mind as the conversation started treading down this path, as the possibilities of the situation turning out to be a hoax were highly probable.

“In these kinds of situations, some of these guys do pretend, but some of them are real sorcerers, and this guy was dealing with a very high level of black magic – as per the evidence of his belongings,” Hassan said.

Customs inspectors found heads and tails of dead snakes, several animal bones, head of a rooster, animal skins, ampoules of blood, and lots of papers with unusual symbols written in saffron and blood.

When the officer asked the passenger what these items were for, he responded: “Listen, you will let me go, otherwise I will do something to you.”

The officer politely explained: “We have to work according to procedure, and you have a lot of items with you. I understand it is something normal in your country, but in our country there are regulations, there’s the law, it’s not in my hands so you have to follow our procedure, so we can either finish this now or wait for another officer who will be coming in later.”

He then agreed to continue while the officer continued with the report, before having the passenger’s items confiscated and him being transferred to the concerned authorities, and subsequently, receiving a lifetime ban from re-entering the UAE.

“Practices in connection to sorcery and black magic are completely illegal in our country, against our regulations, against our religion, and these sorcerers are dangerous to our society,” explained Hassan.

The experienced Dubai Customs team who remain sharp-eyed while on duty see up to three cases a week related to witchcraft.

The team looks out for a variety of items normally triggered by papers, as commonly sorcerers work with unknown symbols written in saffron, ink or blood, before going onto more extreme objects.

“The most dangerous black magicians work with items such as animal parts, dead animals, animal skin, blood, bukhour (incense) as part of their rituals. They are the ones we have to be extra careful when dealing with,” Hassan said.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.