Beggar Earns Through Begging

Dubai happens to be a popular destination for jobs, shopping, and tourism.

However, people are also travelling to this city during festive seasons to beg and earn huge amount of money, making Dubai a popular begging destination of the world.

Some of these “high-end beggars” travel on a business visa and prefer to stay in a five-star hotel.

As begging is illegal in this city, from time to time Dubai authorities run campaigns to catch hold of beggars and the recent campaign conducted during January to March 2016 had a shocking revelation. The authorities caught 59 beggars and one beggar was caught earning AED 270,000 (approximately Rs 49,00,000) every month just by begging.

In an official statement, markets section’s head of Dubai Municipality, Faisal Al Badiawi, disclosed that during the checking the authorities found that,

Some of the beggars had passports issued with business or tourist visas. During the campaign, we found that the majority of beggars had entered the country legally with a three-month visa, in order to collect as much money as they could during their time here,

In fact, not too far ago a tourist was caught begging who was staying in one of the five-star hotels in Dubai and owned designer clothes and expensive watches. According to reports, during Ramzan and Eid which is considered to be the peak period hundreds of tourists come to the city for begging.

Director of the Infiltrators Department at Dubai Police, Colonel Ali Salim Al Shamsi, confirmed that beggars can sometimes earn as much as Dhs10,000 (approximately Rs 180000) in a single day.

However, this is not unusual as last year in Kuwait a beggar was caught with a huge sum of money which approximates Rs. 10 crores in Indian currency.

Opening image is for representational purpose.