American Says a Rental Car Dispute Left Her Trapped in Dubai as Another Foreigner Faces Decades in Al-Awir Prison

Tierra Allen, a 30-year-old long-haul truck driver from Houston, said a rental-car dispute in Dubai in March 2023 left her effectively trapped in the United Arab Emirates for four months and facing the threat of prison — an ordeal she says felt eerily close to the fate now confronting British student Mia O’Brien, who in October 2024 was sentenced to 25 years after authorities said they found 50 grams of cocaine in her possession.

Allen told the Daily Mail she was visiting a then-boyfriend when the couple’s rental car was involved in a minor fender bender and the boyfriend was arrested for driving without a license. She said rental-agency staff refused to return her passport and credit cards without an additional payment, and an argument followed. Allen said an employee called police, accused her of screaming at staff and later sought a warrant for her arrest after she ignored a summons she believed was a prank. She said she was taken into custody, held for hours and released, but then placed under a travel ban and warned she could face up to two years in prison for the confrontation.

According to Allen’s account, much of the ensuing process was opaque to her. She said documents were presented in Arabic, she felt pressured to sign and was unable to book a flight home. For two months she stayed at her boyfriend’s apartment while he remained in Al-Awir prison; when he was released he lost the apartment and the couple, she said, moved between hotels. Allen’s mother contacted Radha Stirling, a London-based human-rights advocate who has worked on thousands of cases involving foreign nationals in the UAE. With Stirling’s help and legal representation on the ground, Allen said charges were dropped and the travel ban lifted after about three months. Her mother paid roughly $1,360 to recover Allen’s passport, and Allen returned to the United States in late August 2023.

Stirling told the Daily Mail that the episode reflected a broader pattern she has encountered in the UAE: what she described as rental-car extortion schemes, in which travel bans and local legal processes are used to extract money from foreign visitors. She said other cases she has handled included two Americans reportedly forced to pay about $20,000 to resolve similar claims and a New Yorker, Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos, who was detained in July 2023 after an interaction with an airport employee and later freed after diplomatic and advocacy interventions.

Human-rights groups and advocates have repeatedly warned that foreign nationals detained in the UAE can be vulnerable to protracted legal entanglements and that consular or legal intervention is often decisive in securing release. Stirling said diplomatic pressure was critical in several cases, citing the intervention that she and U.S. officials secured for De Los Santos and other detainees.

The accounts of trapped visitors take on added urgency in the wake of the O’Brien sentence. Human Rights Watch reported last year that Al-Awir Central Prison, which houses pretrial and convicted detainees in Abu Dhabi, has been the scene of severe abuses. The 2024 Human Rights Watch report described overcrowding and said rape had been reported as an "everyday occurrence," alleging that guards and other inmates had been involved in violent assaults. Those findings have been cited by advocates and family members seeking consular assistance for detained foreigners.

O’Brien, who pleaded not guilty, has appealed her sentence, and her family and British officials have described the case as a tragic mistake. Reports said she was fined approximately $136,000, which included a sum for the drugs’ estimated street value. Stirling, who is not handling O’Brien’s case, said the British government’s diplomatic pressure and public sympathy would be important factors in whether O’Brien might secure relief such as a pardon.

Others who say they were harmed while visiting the UAE include Air Force veterans Joseph and Joshua Lopez, who told advocates they were drugged and robbed at a yacht party and were jailed for a month in June 2023; advocates said intervention from then-Ohio senator J.D. Vance helped prevent a harsher outcome. Stirling and other advocates have emphasized that women, in particular, can be vulnerable to drugging and sexual assault while abroad, a concern Allen said haunted her while she awaited the outcome of her case. Allen told the Daily Mail she considered suicide during the ordeal and that she feared being sexually assaulted in prison. She said her boyfriend, who is African, was deported weeks before her release.

Allen said the experience has left her shaken and unlikely to return to Dubai. "Dubai don't play," she told the newspaper. "I would never go back. Never again."

Advocates for detained foreigners say the combination of local laws, the discretionary use of travel bans, and the potential for criminal penalties — sometimes for acts that visitors describe as minor or unintentional — make timely consular contact, legal representation and public advocacy critical. Governments including the United States and the United Kingdom routinely advise their citizens to register with consular services when traveling and to seek immediate consular assistance if detained. Officials do not comment on individual cases, but families and advocates say diplomatic engagement and public scrutiny often play an outsized role in resolving disputes and securing releases.

O’Brien’s legal team has lodged an appeal, and her family has sought support from the British government. Rights groups have called for transparency in prison conditions and for independent investigations into allegations of abuse at facilities including Al-Awir. Allen’s case, and the others cited by advocates, underscores the tensions that can emerge when foreign visitors encounter local legal systems that differ sharply from those in their home countries.

Allen said she had been dazzled by Dubai’s modern skyline and luxury offerings before the incident but that the months she spent under a travel ban had erased the allure. Her account and the high-profile sentencing of O’Brien have renewed calls from advocates for clearer safeguards for foreign nationals and for more robust consular support when visitors are caught up in local legal actions.