UAE crime poll: Abu Dhabi safest emirate to live and work

Abu Dhabi has been voted the safest emirate in which to live and work.
Respondents were asked to rank the emirates in order of safety. Overall, almost half (47 per cent) ranked Abu Dhabi, the U.A.E.'s largest emirate, as the safest, closely followed by Dubai at 41 per cent.
"When you look at the difference among emirates, the safest emirate based on our feedback from our interviewers is Abu Dhabi,” said Lara Al Barazi, YouGov associate research director. "This was not really a surprise. Maybe because it is the capital, people feel more safe. It is the main city.
"When you are in Dubai it is not that different, but Abu Dhabi has that feeling it is the safest city or emirate in the U.A.E..”
Ms Al Barazi felt with Abu Dhabi being the capital of the U.A.E., it should be the safest emirate.
"It is more of a kind of regional perspective. People believe the capital has more attention or more police. It is about the perception.”
The majority of Arab expatriates (63 per cent) selected Abu Dhabi as the safest emirate, as did Emiratis and westerners (both 50 per cent of those asked). The majority of Asian expatriates (45 per cent), however, felt safer in Dubai than in the other emirates.
"I feel Abu Dhabi is the safest place to live in the U.A.E.,” said Sajeev, 43, an Indian expatriate media sales executive in Dubai.
"But the whole of the U.A.E. is safe. It is a nice place overall, so any part, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, feels safe. I don't know much about the other emirates, but Dubai and Abu Dhabi definitely.
"Overall, I would feel much safer in this part of the world, in the U.A.E., than in other parts of the world.”
He generally felt safer in the U.A.E. than in his home country, for example.
"It is safer here than back home,” he said. "That is not a personal view but a general view.”
Researchers surveyed respondents in each of the seven emirates: 260 from Abu Dhabi, 461 in Dubai, 161 in Sharjah and 126 from the Northern Emirates of Ajman, Umm Al Qaiwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.
In his 12 years in the U.A.E., Souvik Guha, 47, an Indian expatriate who works in Dubai as a general manager, has lived in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, his present home.
He believed there was a general feeling of being safer in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
"People are more aware and the police are at hand,” he said. There was more of a feeling of a police presence in the two emirates.
"I lived in Abu Dhabi about seven to eight years ago and even then I felt it safer. While I have not lived in Dubai, I do work there and you know that if you call, the cops will come.”
He said that while generally the U.A.E. was a safe place to live, he thought the Northern Emirates needed to improve some measures to feel as safe as in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
"I had an experience in Sharjah: I had a minor car accident. I had to wait three hours and nobody turned up. But that was about three years ago and things have improved in Sharjah, but there is still a long way to go.
"But generally in Dubai if you call they are there within 30 minutes. Police are approachable. Approachability is not the issue. The problem is when you do call the 999 number, it is the time they take to really get to you.”
Mr Guha believed there needed to be more awareness and more personnel but said, generally, the U.A.E. felt a very safe place to live and work.