Filipinos in the UAE have been urged not to illegally transport passengers or patronize illegal transport for their own safety.
Barney Almazar, a licensed UAE legal consultant who helps Filipinos in the UAE, reminded his compatriots to only use legal public transport and urged drivers not to resort to offering illegal “car lift” services, reported Gulf News.
The advisory was issued after three drivers sought his advice on how to get the fines they had received from the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), reduced.
“The driver is an engineer whose work requires him to drive from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. He is issued a company car and gets a regular fuel allowance from his company. But on the side, he offers a ride to passengers going to Abu Dhabi from Ibn Battuta Mall at Dh25 per person,” Almazar was quoted as saying.
“He was flagged down four weeks ago and was fined Dh20,000 by RTA. He was told that if he was caught violating again, he’d be deported,” he reportedly said. “Alarmingly, this is the third case I’ve encountered in recent months.”
Almazar reportedly said the driver appealed for his fine to be reduced, but RTA required his sponsor to issue the letter of appeal.
“That meant his company had no idea that he was using his company’s car for his private business. He couldn’t inform his company because he could lose his job,” Almazar was quoted as saying by Gulf News. “He ended up borrowing money to pay the fine and get his license back — an extra expense that he could have avoided from the beginning.”
In Dubai, transporting passengers in vehicles not licensed for this purpose within the emirate or to any other emirate invites a penalty of Dh20,000 while illegal transport firms can be slapped with a Dh50,000 fine. The penalties were increased to curb passenger ‘smuggling’, a common practice among many Asian drivers, the report said.
