192
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by 01011@monero.town to c/world@lemmy.world

A UK citizen has been sentenced to three months in jail in Dubai after “insulting” airport staff who were slow to bring his mother a wheelchair.

The unnamed man was originally issued a Dh 10,000 (£2,150) fine, but his appeal against this failed and his punishment was extended to a jail term on 6 November.

An airport employee told the court that the man swore at her after she had explained the airport’s wheelchair policy to him, telling him that “a wheelchair would be made available before boarding the bus”.

“When I tried to explain it to him, he insulted me using very bad language. I told the traveller that using such offensive language is not allowed at Dubai airport but he responded that he didn’t care.”

The employee then called the police, and a case was filed against the man in Dubai’s Criminal Court. Following an appeal, which he lost, the fine was escalated into a jail sentence, followed by immediate deportation.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] magnetosphere@kbin.social 27 points 10 months ago

I’m not a big fan of the UAE, but I do like the idea of criminalizing the abuse of service workers. The American “kiss their ass faster and more thoroughly” style isn’t fair to employees, and only rewards bad behavior.

[-] c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago

That's easily solvable by refusing service to someone who uses abusive language.

The only instance where words should get you jail time is if it's a specific and targeted threat against someone, just being a douche is far too grey of an area to put people in prison for.

[-] magnetosphere@kbin.social 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

True. Jail time would often be overkill, but people need to understand that it’s not acceptable to threaten to take away someone’s livelihood (and often their health insurance) just because the employee is following company policy. That can be a much more serious threat than customers realize.

In order to refuse service, employees have to feel comfortable doing so. That means being certain that there will be no negative repercussions from management, and that management will back their decision 100%. Service workers shouldn’t have to choose between keeping their dignity or paying their rent.

this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
192 points (92.9% liked)

World News

38987 readers
1883 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS