ACRIMONIOUS BEGINNING FOR NEW DUBAI GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 DUBAI 000629

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

G/TIP FOR GPATEL; CA/OCS/ACS FOR GLYNN

TAGS: PREL PHUM KCRM ELAB CASC AE
SUBJECT: ACRIMONIOUS BEGINNING FOR NEW DUBAI GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED
WOMEN'S SHELTER

REF: REF ABU DHABI 1687

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1. (SBU) Summary. The much-anticipated opening of the Dubai
Foundation for Women and Children (DFWC) shelter (the first
official government-sponsored shelter for abused women and
children in the UAE) and its merger with the unofficial City of
Hope (CoH) shelter has been marred by acrimonious accusations
between the DFWC shelter's executive director Afra Busiti and
long-time local trafficking activist, City of Hope founder and
DFWC board member Sharla Musabih (a naturalized Emirati born in
the US). The escalating tensions between the two have resulted
in Musabih being refused access to the DFWC compound to visit
her City of Hope clients and Busiti filling criminal charges of
"insulting" against Musabih. Musabih has called off the merger
between the shelters, though she remains on the board of the
DFWC, and is seeking to reactivate the City of Hope facility
(which had transferred all its equipment and furniture to the
new shelter).


2. (C) While in need of immediate aesthetic changes, the DFWC
shelter compound has the potential to offer victims of abuse and
trafficking a comfortable respite while waiting for their cases
to be sorted out by UAEG officials and is a welcome addition in
a country lacking legal shelters. However, significant
questions remain about the shelter's management philosophy,
depth of technical training of its personnel and expertise in
dealing with cases of abuse and trafficking. End Summary.


3. (C) As reported reftel, in late September and early October,
inspired by DFWC's commitment to assist abused and trafficked
women, Musabih agreed to merge City of Hope into the newly
formed DFWC shelter, moving approximately 50 women and children,
and all the CoH's furniture and equipment, from the cramped
villa maintained by Musabih into the DFWC's spacious nine
building compound. Responding to subsequent concerns expressed
by Musabih, Consular Chief, Pol/Econ officer and AmCit Services
LES met with Busiti and her staff members during a visit the
newly opened shelter on October 29. Pol/Econ officer also spoke
separately with Musabih and several of the CoH clients currently
resident in the new DFWC shelter.

A lovely compound, after the razor wire

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4. (U) The new DFWC shelter occupies a compound that formerly
housed a drug rehabilitation center. The accommodations are
spacious: 2 large dormitories, several stand alone villas and
separate dining, laundry, recreation and mosque facilities.
There are open lawns and even a swimming pool available for the
residents. According to Busiti, the shelter has a 250 to 300
person capacity.


5. (C) However, to reach this relaxing abode, one must travel
into a remote area, more than 30 kilometers from Dubai city
center. Given lack of proximity to downtown and public
transportation, it is unlikely that abuse and trafficking
victims will be able to reach the shelter on their own. Someone
will have to take them there; and Busiti envisions the majority
of her cases being delivered to the shelter by the local Dubai
police. Busiti further elaborated her belief that being "far
from the city is what is needed for the rehabilitation of the
ladies."


6. (SBU) From the outside, the facility looks like a posh jail;
hard to get into and harder to exit. The shelter is situated
immediately next door to the Dubai Central Jail and is
surrounded by a nine foot fence, topped with razor wire, and
guard towers along the perimeter. Entrance into the compounded
is through closed gates guarded by police officers. Once
verified by the guards against an entry list and allowed inside
the compound, the resemblance to a prison is reinforced by the
bars gracing the dormitory and out building windows. Busiti
acknowledged that the bars needed to come down, but she did not
appear concerned about the other security features, insisting
they were necessary to "protect" the women inside. When asked
whether residents could leave the compound, Busiti unequivocally
stated yes, they just need to secure a pass from the shelter
administration and sign-up in advance for one of several daily
bus trips into city center.

Shelter Staff: Depth of experience is thin

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7. (C) Busiti does not have experience in social work or health
care administration. According to Busiti, her prior experience
was running market development for the Dubai World Trade Center,
an office tower; according to Musabih, Busiti was also a wedding
planner. The DFWC shelter appears to be very lightly staffed,
with a deputy director, psychologist and one or two social

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workers (one a former volunteer from City of Hope with a Masters
degree in Human Rights). Acknowledging the staffing shortfall,
Busiti explained that they had solicited resumes from trained
mental health and social workers and would begin interviewing
for section heads in the next few weeks. Busiti refused to
elaborate on the criteria (or how it had been developed) that
would be used in selecting shelter staff. (Comment: Musabih
noted separately that the shelter is exclusively recruiting
Emirati senior staff, hard to come by in Dubai where 15 % or
less of the population is Emirati. End Comment)

Focus on illegals

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8. (C) When discussing actual clients, Busiti appeared much
more focused on implementing the UAEG's program to root out
"illegals" (individuals in the UAE without a valid visa) than on
resolving abuse/trafficking cases and seeking restitution for
victims. She proudly declared that the DFWC had already sent
three "cases" back to their home countries the previous week and
that she anticipated repatriating another 11 in the upcoming
week, because the women in question were "illegals who had been
malingering" (Note. Busiti meticulously never mentioned the CoH
shelter or that the majority of her current cases at the DFWC
had been transferred from the CoH. Any time the conversation
turned in a direction where CoH or Musabih would logically be
mentioned, her tone became cold and aggressive and she turned
the conversation. End note.)

Merger off - Musabih's tale

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9. (C) In separate discussions with Pol/Econ Off, Musabih
elaborated on the events surrounding the merger of the two
shelters. According to Musabih, after the initial move of all
City of Hope cases and equipment to the DFWC shelter, Musabih
began to get phone calls from the scared women complaining of
maltreatment at the new shelter (being locked in, domestic
violence cases being told to go back to abusive husbands, not
being allowed to attend church, etc.). Concerned, Musabih twice
drove out to the shelter and was refused entry by the guards at
the gate. (Note: Musabih is a member of the Board of Directors
for the DFWC shelter and it is unusual for a Board member to be
refused entry to a facility. End note.) On the second visit,
Musabih managed to enter the compound, only to be immediately
confronted by Busiti and ordered to leave. As the confrontation
escalated, heated words were exchanged, resulting in Busiti
pressing criminal charges of "insulting" against Musabih, though
Musabih insists the charges are unfounded. (Note: In the UAE,
publicly insulting another individual is a prosecutable charge
with jail time as a potential outcome if the accused is found
guilty. In cases of national vs. non-national, the non-national
rarely wins. Ms. Musabih, though a naturalized Emirati through
marriage, remains an American citizen. End note.)


10. (C) After being refused access to her previous clients,
Musabih declared the merger void and defiantly re-opened City of
Hope. However the future of the CoH is tenuous at best, as it
not legally recognized by the UAEG and could be shut down at any
moment. While it has always operated on a shoe-string, it's now
without beds, furniture and appliances (the contents of the
shelter have not been released back to Musabih). Furthermore,
Musabih claims to have received warnings from concerned
"friends" that she and the CoH are "under investigation for
prostitution and suspicious activities in the house." Finally,
the UAEG has confiscated her passport pending resolution of her
court case, not unusual given local criminal procedures.

The Shelter residents speak

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11. (C) Pol/Econ off talked by phone with six of the women at
the DFWC shelter (Note: Phone numbers were provided by Musabih
and respondents could be biased. End note). Of the six, one
indicated that initial problems of transport and entry/exit had
been resolved and that "everything is now OK." Another
described a clear situation of being in the UAE illegally
without any abuse/trafficking circumstances. The other
residents' statements raised concerns. A paraplegic woman
complained that she was not allowed to leave the shelter with a
CoH volunteer, she could only leave when accompanied by a DFWC
staff member. A victim of domestic violence claimed the shelter
was trying to force her to go back to her alcoholic husband and
they had even called her husband and told him to come and pick
her and her daughter up. Another woman stated the shelter
staff were encouraging her to give her child to her husband's
sister and to return to her native country without her baby.

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Comment

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12. (C) Many of the problems between the two shelters can be
attributed back to two very strong-willed individuals with
fundamentally different views about who should be in charge of
the shelter, how it should be run and its residents treated.
While there is a lot of "she said/she said" in this case, it is
clear that the merger of the two shelters was poorly handled.
Frightened and abused women were prematurely taken to a shelter
that too closely resembled a jail and were subsequently denied
access to their trusted and known case workers from CoH. In the
future, removing the bars, razor wire and guard houses would
alleviate some of the women's fear upon first entering the
facility.


13. (C) Of more concern are the implications by some residents
that the DFWC shelter management is trying to expeditiously
clear out cases without concern for the women's health and
safety. If the shelter is in fact encouraging women to go back
to abusive husbands and give up infants - and we only a couple
of cases of anecdotal evidence of this - it is not fulfilling
its designated role in moving the UAE away from past violations
in human rights and trafficking in persons.


14. (C) However, the context is important. The very fact of the
shelter's existence is a positive step forward for the UAEG and
it is premature to judge the shelter, still in its start-up
period, based a limited anecdotal criticisms. The UAEG should be
encouraged to hire experienced staff with adequate training to
work with the residents of the shelter. With changes, the
facility has the potential to be a model for the region. Post
suggests sending the DFWC senior staff as international visitors
to the US to learn from long-established shelters about best
practices in handling abuse and trafficking cases. Post will
also follow-up with shelter residents on how their cases are
being handled.
SUTPHIN