Indian in UAE faces namesake trouble

Dubai: An Indian professional in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) faces excessive scrutiny every time he goes out of the country because his name matches with a wanted criminal.

Mohammad Anwer Ali, 37, a business analyst at a travel company in Dubai, is facing problems while leaving for other countries because someone else with the same name has been blacklisted by the UAE authorities, the Gulf News reportedThursday.

“I got curious after I started getting hauled up at Dubai’s airports. I thought this couldn’t be a coincidence every time. When I asked an officer why I was being taken to a separate room all the time and made to wait, he told me they were making sure that the other Mohammad Anwer Ali who’s blacklisted in the UAE and I are not the same,” Ali was quoted as saying.

“Once an immigration officer even pressed the alarm button to call police, thinking I was the man on the run,” he added.

Ali, who lives in Ajman, one of the seven emirates of the UAE, with his wife, said he faced a similar situation earlier this year in Jakarta in Indonesia.

He visited the Department of Naturalisation and Residency -- an agency that grants entry permits, visit visas, residence visas for entering and living in the UAE -- in Dubai but that did not help either.

“The officer told me that they cannot do anything for me at the moment and cannot even issue the E-gate pass. They asked me to come again in July,” he added.