Thirty-one men, nationals of Uzbekistan, who arrived at 1:00 a.m. on November 30 at Sheikh Zayed Airport in Abu Dhabi on Wizz Air flight 5W7160 from Tashkent, were not allowed to leave the airport and are still being held.
Later, it became known that 10 more men were detained, and then another 50 people. The interlocutors believe that there may be more detentions.
Group of 31 men, women, children and elderly people were released. Men aged 20 to 40 were detained and face deportation from the country. None of them were told the reason for such actions. They were not given food for more than half a day and were even allowed to go to the toilet accompanied by armed National Guard officers. According to the passengers, the Embassy of Uzbekistan was unable to provide assistance to the detainees.
“My brother and I flew in for Formula 1 — solely for tourism purposes. There are also concerts planned for Eminem, Maroon 5, Teddy Swims, Peggy Gou, Muse,” said one of the passengers.
All the detainees had different purposes for their visit — some had business meetings, some had come to visit family, some were tourists, he noted.
“As soon as we arrived, at passport control they simply started dragging us out, taking our passports without giving any reasons,” the man said.
“We were just sitting and waiting for them to give us at least some information. Then they started calling us one by one, asking why we had arrived, for how many days, taking our phone number and, without answering our questions, taking us back. We sat like that for 15 hours,” the interlocutor shared. During this entire time, they were fed once.
"Then the National Guard came with SMGs and took us to another room somewhere in the basement, where the conditions were terrible, stuffy, no room to sit or lie down," he said.
"We started looking for contacts at the embassy ourselves. They encouraged us with different information, but no one has helped yet. They said that the embassy would come at 8 am, they didn't. Then they said that they would resolve the issue by 5 pm, they didn't," the man noted.
They didn't tell anyone openly that all the detainees would be deported from the country back to Tashkent. They found out that 18 tickets had been purchased (in total, 31 people were detained), "but no one said which tickets, for whom, for which flight," so the people had to buy the tickets themselves.
At approximately 11:10 p.m. Tashkent time, the Uzbek embassy in the UAE posted a statement that 31 nationals of Uzbekistan had been detained at the airport "for unknown reasons." "The Embassy of Uzbekistan in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General in Dubai are in dialogue with the airport administration and representatives of the responsible departments of the Emirates and have taken control of the situation," the statement said.
"In cooperation with the airport administration, measures have been taken to provide our compatriots with three meals a day and, if necessary, medical assistance," the embassy said.
"All measures are being taken to resolve the current situation," the diplomatic mission concluded.
On November 25, the UAE Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that three Uzbek nationals are suspected of murdering 28-year-old Israeli rabbi Zvi Kogan. He had gone missing several days earlier in Dubai, where he owned a kosher store, and was found dead in the city of Al Ain, which borders Oman.
