Traveler detained by AI mistake back home after 55 days in UAE｜Taiwan News

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A trip to Turkey became an international nightmare for a Taiwanese couple late last year. Mr. Chen and his wife were heading for a dream getaway, when they ran into an unexpected problem during a layover in the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Chen was about to board his flight, when he was detained by a group of fully armed personnel, put in leg shackles, and taken away. After an international investigation, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs discovered that Mr. Chen had apparently been mistakenly flagged as a criminal by the local AI system. That mistake has cost him a detention in the country stretching 55 days. Let’s hear more from Mr. Chen himself.

Mr. Chen
Stranded in the UAE
I went to Dubai 20 years ago for an exhibition, but I never returned after that. The police accused me of being involved in property embezzlement. I thought it was so strange. I hadn’t even been in the country, so how could I embezzle any property from far away? I never in my dreams imagined such an ordeal would happen to me.

Wife
Husband was stranded in UAE
My husband was put on leg shackles on the first day. It was terrible. He was treated like a prisoner and was cut off from the outside world.

Hsiao Kuang-wei
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson
On Jan. 15, our representative office in Dubai confirmed with the relevant local authorities that Mr. Chen would be allowed to leave the country. On the evening of Jan. 16, he was taken to Abu Dhabi Airport to leave the country. All actions were taken in compliance with local laws, while striving for and safeguarding the rights of our citizen.

Mr. Chen’s arrest took place last year, on Nov. 24. He was released a few days later, in the early hours of Nov. 28. But that was not enough to leave the country. On Dec. 3, he was joined by staff from Taiwan’s representative office in Dubai to handle administrative procedures with local authorities. For a while, Mr. Chen lived at the residence of the office’s director, while waiting for his legal team to process the case. He was later redirected to the home of a local pastor. It took more than a month to clarify the facts surrounding his detention, after it was confirmed that it was all a false alarm caused by an error in the local AI system. The travel ban that had been imposed on him was finally lifted, but the legal nightmare wasn’t over yet. It turns out that local authorities had misplaced his passport, so that had to be resolved before he was able to leave the country. He finally departed the UAE on Jan. 16 to get home after weeks of waiting and distress.

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