UAE: Extensive Violations Against Foreigners, Including Elderly Migrants

Human rights violations are rampant in the UAE against foreign nationals, including elderly individuals, such as a 70-year-old British businessman.

Ryan Cornelius, a British businessman imprisoned in Dubai for years, revealed that prison authorities tried to force him to sign a document claiming that his human rights were being respected.

Cornelius urged the British Foreign Ministry to offer him protection, given the crimes and widespread violations he is facing inside his UAE prison.

Reports indicate that Cornelius has been imprisoned in Dubai since 2008 on charges of fraud involving £370 million ($450.6 million). Since then, he has been held in prison for more than 16 years, with UAE authorities extending his original 10-year sentence until 2038.

According to the British newspaper “The Independent,” Cornelius has now sent a message to the British Foreign Ministry, urging his government to protect him from the “aggressive” prison officials after they attempted to force him to sign a document stating that his human rights were respected.

The British prisoner stated in the letter: “The relationship between guards and prisoners is coercive by nature,” adding that “the ability of guards to make life extremely unpleasant for anyone they choose to bully is a crucial element in enforcing prison rules. When someone with this kind of power asks you to sign a statement claiming you are treated well, you get a health incentive to comply to avoid being subjected to worse treatment.”

Reports suggest this attempt was the first time in nearly 17 years of imprisonment that UAE authorities had asked Cornelius to sign a document related to his human rights. When he was arrested in 2008, it was reported that prison authorities gave him a document in Arabic— a language he does not speak— and claimed that he would be released from custody if he signed it. However, after complying, guards placed him in solitary confinement, according to the newspaper.

Reports also indicated that Cornelius’ son-in-law, Chris Baggett, stated that Cornelius was forced to stay “consecutive days” without fresh air, with one prison guard specifically “asserting his authority” by aggressively searching the cells and closing the prison’s food store.

The report is the latest revelation in recent years of rampant human rights abuses across Abu Dhabi’s security apparatus, including against Emirati and Western citizens within the system.