Human rights organisation Detained in Dubai today called for the immediate safeguarding of Ryan John Michael Pepper, a British father of young children from Ashford, Kent, held in Sharjah CID detention for many months with severely limited family contact.

Hanson, from Anchorage, Alaska, first travelled to the UAE for work in aviation before later moving there in 2016. His situation deteriorated after the economic downturn following covid lockdowns and the knock on effects. He was left facing travel bans.

British father Ryan Pepper has reported that he has been beaten, threatened and psychologically abused inside a Dubai detention facility while British officials struggled to obtain meaningful private access to him following repeated safeguarding concerns raised by his devastated family.

Detained in Dubai provides legal and crisis support to foreign nationals detained in the UAE, including coordinating defence strategies with local lawyers, liaising with embassies and government officials, and advocating for fair treatment and release. The organisation also supports families, raises cases at diplomatic levels, and, where necessary, brings international attention to cases to help secure outcomes.

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Radha Stirling, founder and CEO of Detained in Dubai and Due Process International, has been the UAE's biggest critic over the past two decades. She's called out the FCDO and British government for their treatment of citizens abroad and now she's called out the recent political rhetoric targeting British expatriates in Dubai, warning that attempts to portray them as “tax exiles” risk creating public support for the government abandoning its own citizens abroad.

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