Dubai Police treat, nurture inmates’ child

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

Dubai Police took care of a child and helped cover his treatment expenses until his jailed parents completed serving their sentences, revealed a senior officer on Tuesday.

In a humanitarian gesture that entrenches children's rights to a decent life, Dubai Police in cooperation with strategic partners sponsored the 4-year old Asian child by providing health, legal and education services.

“Police provided treatment, shelter and education until the end of the sentences of his parents imprisoned in financial cases,” explained the Director of Naif Police Station Brigadier Dr. Tariq Mohammed Noor Tahlak.

The child’s mother had been sent to serve a punishment in the women's prison in Dubai. She entrusted the care of the child to his father. He got caught up in financial cases that ultimately landed him behind bars.

In the absence of any relative who could shoulder the child’s care, the Dubai Police General Command in coordination with concerned authorities, was keen to provide shelter and other necessary services.

“The child had no identification documents because of the financial problems suffered by his parents. He also needed immediate treatment for a skin disease besides speech impairment,” said Brigadier Tariq.

Immediately, the Victim Support Section at the Naif Police Station contacted the embassy of the child’s parents’ homeland and other competent authorities to process for him identification papers and a passport.

The section also reached out to Latifa Hospital to provide him treatment which required him to spend two weeks in hospital until he recovered. He was referred to the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children

The charitable foundation worked on educating him and developing his pronunciation and discussion skills. It also took charge of taking him to visit his mother in prison periodically until she completed her term.

Upon her release from jail, the mother received him and pledged to nurture him. She travelled with him to their homeland. The father after his release got a new job that ensures him and his family a decent life.

Brigadier Tariq explained that both parents after serving their jail sentences and receiving their child went to Dubai Police expressing their thanks and appreciation for the humanitarian gesture towards their child.

Both underscored that it was the first time they had witnessed such unlimited giving through free therapeutic, educational and legal services, enabling them to start a new life and ensure their only child a decent living.