As of late, Dubai has found itself thrown under the glare of the media spotlight. Some argue that the image depicted by the international press paints an exaggerated picture of the decline of this metropolis, yet local media reports also fall short of depicting reality. As a state constantly vying for international attention, one thing is certain: it’s time that Dubai improve its transparency and stop sweeping things under the carpet before it is too late.

The Times’ and the New York Times’ recent articles reporting the worsening economic situation in Dubai stirred a considerable fuss in the UAE media. It is claimed that 3,000 cars have been stranded in airport car parks as expats flee from their debts, a figure which apparently was sourced by local newspapers. The emergence of these statistics within the international press led to an emergency conference, at which the Emirate Chief of Police, Dhahi Khalfan Tamim sought to set the record straight.

Tamim slated the international media and accused it of misreporting facts, remarking that ‘a reporter should always verify the facts of a report. Credibility, objectivity and accountability are essential in journalism and this report lacked credibility’. He then went on to confirm that in fact only 11 cars have been abandoned at Dubai’s airport since January last year. ‘Be assured that if we had at least 50 or 25 or 15 cars abandoned at the airport, I would have told you about it.’

Recently, Xpress, a local tabloid newspaper, reported that around 90 vehicles have been left unclaimed for several weeks in three terminals of the Dubai International Airport. Their sources were a number of parking attendants. The National, an Abu Dhabi- based newspaper, has also reported that 65 cars had been abandoned at Dubai’s airport by the end of 2008, and that 3000 cars in total had been left behind by owners to escape their debts, using an anonymous senior police official as their source. The fact that these sources all chose to remain anonymous demonstrates the unwillingness to talk to the media unless they have been given permission by the government. A lack of hard statistics in Dubai makes word of mouth the only reliable method of assessing information. Asking around, you’ll find that many Dubai residents have reported seeing abandoned cars not only at the airport but in parking lots across the city. When asked about the official figure of 11 cars, they are all quite mystified.

When statistics are announced and published by official sources, more often than not, they don’t reflect anecdotal evidence. Emigration numbers are another example of this discrepancy. As redundancy numbers have risen, so too has the number of expatriates leaving Dubai. The National used a spokesperson from the British Embassy who, while he too could not quote rock hard statistics, estimated that around 100,000 Britons had left Dubai in the last year alone. ‘Industry insiders’ were quoted in local publications as saying that thousands of workers in the construction and real estate market have lost their jobs over the last few months and were being shipped out.

Again, the government has repeatedly stepped in to affirm the contrary to what everyone else believes. Yet recent statistics from the Naturalisation Residency Department have revealed that 3.62 million expats are heading home, that 1,500 visas are being cancelled every day, and that growth halved in January. Raed Safadi the Chief Economist of the Dubai government, attempted to stem the panic by announcing at a recent press conference, ‘We have revised our forecast since October. This is because we have accepted that we are not immune to the global financial crisis, and we are open to sharing our records’. Safadi continued by assuring that Dubai continues to lay emphasis on retaining human capital and that net visas issued per day in January averaged about 1,000. Critics have argued that this does not prove anything in terms of population growth as the figures don’t state how many of those were renewals.

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