A Taiwanese traveler who was detained by police on Sunday when transiting through Abu Dhabi International Airport has been released from custody, but is still not allowed to leave the country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry in a statement said its office in Dubai received a call from the man’s family yesterday at 1:30am, informing the office that he had been released from detention.
Despite the release, the Yunlin County man surnamed Chen (陳), still has to report to police to have his travel restrictions lifted, and that cannot happen until Wednesday because of a national holiday in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from today to Tuesday, the ministry said.
Photo courtesy of Chen’s wife
The ministry did not elaborate on why the man was still not allowed to leave the country.
In the meantime, the office in Dubai — in charge of all UAE affairs — has established contact with the man after his release and is putting him up in the office’s dormitory, office director Eric Chen (陳俊吉) said.
Before the release, the Dubai office had remained in contact with Abu Dhabi police and the man’s family, but it had yet to receive any clarification on why the man was taken away by police, the ministry said.
The ministry said it first received a call for help on Monday from the man’s wife, surnamed Yang (楊), who was traveling with her husband, and was told that Chen had been taken away by five armed police officers as they were about to board a connecting flight to go on a 16-day tour of Turkey.
Yang said she was not able to ask why her husband was being detained and, having cleared immigration, had to board the flight to Istanbul with other members of the tour group they were part of, the ministry said.
Soon after receiving the phone call, the Dubai office contacted Abu Dhabi police to get information about the case.
Abu Dhabi police briefed the office on the incident early on Wednesday, but didn’t provide details on why Chen was detained, the ministry said.
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