A British father who went to Dubai for a job interview said he had been stolen and is currently being held in Abu Dhabi for loans taken on his behalf.

Atif Khalique, 36, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, went to the United Arab Emirates in 2016 for an interview after responding to a job posting he had seen online.

Mr Khalique, who was a taxi driver at the time, was pleased to learn that he had obtained the job and provided the company with a lot of personal information for a background check.

He returned to the United Kingdom to announce to his fiancée Claire Khalique, 32, the good news — but when he did not hear from his new employers in the next few months, he assumed he had failed to the background check.

To his surprise, the company made contact again in March 2016 to say that it had to provide details again because they had “misplaced” the original documents.

Mr Khalique returned to Dubai to give his details again, but after his return to the UK and without hearing the company again, he realized that something was wrong.

Speaking to “Detainee in Dubai,” Mr Khalique said, “I had no idea what they were doing with my personal information. They took my details to steal my identity and obtain bank loans and credit cards on my behalf.

“I began to be contacted by collection agents about defaults in Dubai that I had never contracted.”

Mr Khalique has been fighting the legal battle since 2016 and at that time he married his wife Claire and had a two-year-old daughter Arianna.

Mr Khalique learned that he had become a victim of identity theft and was quickly involved in a legal battle with a law firm hired by a bank in Dubai to seize his assets in a British court to reimburse him. one of the fraudulent loans.

Mr Khalique has been fighting this legal battle since 2016 and at that time he started working in a telecommunications company in the UK, married his wife Claire and welcomed a two-year-old daughter Arianna.

With a court date set for 2020, Atif was ready to fight the claim and erase his name in court too, hopefully, put an end to the legal battle once and for all.

Pending the date of the hearing, Mr Khalique went on vacation in Abu Dhabi on September 3 to witness the UFC fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Poirier.

Mr Khalique (photographed with his wife on their wedding day) learned that he had become a victim of identity theft and was quickly involved in a legal battle with lawyers.

But Mr Khalique was unaware that several cases concerning his loans had been taken against him in the UAE by fraudulent creditors.

Mr Khalique had previously been tried in absentia, a case punishable by two months’ imprisonment, and was immediately arrested after landing at the UAE airport.

He was arrested and released on bail after two days, but the police kept his passport, which means he is detained in the UAE until the end of his legal battle.

Mr Khalique is now in Abu Dhabi for four months. He lost his job at home, his savings have all disappeared and he has thousands of pounds of debt.

He said: I have spent more than £ 20,000 since it all started for legal fees and accommodation. The police confiscated my passport, which makes it very difficult to book a hotel room.

“I’ve been moving from one place to another for months now, and I have no income. I am a father now, with a two-year-old daughter; my family is in trouble. I fight.

“The prosecutor has seen all the evidence and he knows that I am innocent, but I am still stuck here.”

Back in the UK, Ms Khalique took care of their daughter Arianna alone and tried to help with what she could from home in Aylesbury.

She tried to involve the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the Khalique case, but said she had been informed that they “could not intervene in legal matters”.

Ms Khalique said, “I thought they were supposed to help British citizens in trouble abroad. Everyone knows that Atif is an innocent victim, but even the British government does not help.

“It’s impossible to explain to Arianna, our two-year-old daughter, why daddy is not at home; we try to FaceTime as often as possible so that she can remember her face and feel her presence.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said today, “We have been in contact with a British man and his family to provide him with information and support after his arrest in Dubai.”

Desperate, Ms Khalique contacted Detainee in Dubai for help — a human rights and legal organization that has been helping foreign victims of injustice in the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf States for more than a year. a decade.

Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, commented: “Atif travelled to the United Arab Emirates in 2016 with confidence in a job opportunity, based on Dubai’s highly promoted image as a place where people can make a fresh start successfully.

“He trusted the recruiter, he trusted the company and he hoped that the United Arab Emirates had put in place controls to guard against unscrupulous fraudsters.

“In all respects, the Emirates have let it down. How can the United Arab Emirates be trusted as a destination for expatriate professionals when a job application can turn into identity theft and the victim issued?

“Identity theft can happen anywhere, but in a case as clear as that of Atif, there is no excuse for it to last for more than three months.

“Atif was no longer in the UAE since March 2016, and all fraudulent account transactions are later. There are transactions in the United Arab Emirates when he was on honeymoon in Bali and since he was at home in Aylesbury.

“The police and the prosecutors know perfectly well that Atif was a victim, but they continue to aggravate his victimization by not allowing him to go home.

“Atif, like so many others, could easily have been the subject of a red notice from Interpol in addition to being judged and sentenced in absentia, as happens regularly.

“The UAE and other Gulf states have become very belligerent in their harassment of debtors, even, as we see in the case of Atif when the debts are not even legitimate and the individual that they pursue is himself a victim of identity theft. ‘’

Ms Stirling, who founded Detained in Dubai, said that the UAE banks had become extremely aggressive in prosecuting debtors abroad

The CEO found himself around the negotiating table several times with lawyers while they were pursuing debts on behalf of Dubai.

She stated that she planned to contact the lawyers to clarify the case of Atif and would request the withdrawal of their application in the British court.

Mr Khalique said, “My life has collapsed. I am heavily indebted, my family is threatened with eviction from our house because we did not pay the rent last month, so this is their last month unless I come back and I start working and support them.

“I’m just in a very bad place, and whatever I do, to whom I speak, no one seems to be able to help me, and I’m so frustrated that I’m innocent, and I do not understand why they’re doing this to me.

Source — https://news-24.fr/un-pere-britannique-de-36-ans-qui-sest-envole-pour-les-emirats-arabes-unis-y-est-maintenant-detenu/