Dubai: Hamdan Street in Abu Dhabi has become notorious for immoral activities by women offering sex services on the pavement outside the shopfront when shops and other small traders close their businesses in the evening.
The otherwise street of daytime pedestrian traffic of residents and shop patrons around Abu Dhabi’s oldest mall gradually gets replaced by ‘ladies of the night’ and their potential customers.
These ‘ladies of the night’ mainly hail from China, Africa or former Soviet Union countries.
According to a report in The National, these women are usually illegal immigrants whose tourist or work visas have expired, and who offer sex services to earn an income to continue their stay in UAE.
The night-time activities by these women, however, make residents and visitors uneasy during the evening with some people who even abstain from visiting the area.
Though police regularly conducts raids and arrested several women in the past, the continued presence of these women refuse to disappear.
Local merchants said such immoral activities were not only bad for businesses but also made it impossible to walk comfortably in the area.
These women work in groups of two or three. They walk the streets, eyeing men passing by and openly negotiate prices with their clients.
An unnamed police source told The National that the raid took place on Monday night. He said that police regularly conducted raids in hot spots for street prostitution – including one on Hamdan Street last week and another on Monday night.
According to Chief Justice Mustafa Abu El Naja, head of an Abu Dhabi appeals court, he received about 20 cases involving about 100 defendants a year, most of whom were caught in Al Zahiyah area and on street corners.
When arrested, these women are not charged with prostitution as when they are caught negotiating in the street, there is not sufficient evidence proving their involvement in prostitution.
They were instead charged with soliciting immorality – a lesser offence punished by a jail sentence of six months to three years, followed by deportation.
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