American says four-month travel ban in Dubai echoed fears raised by British student’s 25-year sentence

A 30-year-old American who says she was held in the United Arab Emirates for four months after a dispute with a rental car company has described an ordeal that she says mirrors growing concerns about harsh penalties and prison conditions in the Gulf state.

Tierra Allen, a long-haul truck driver from Houston who has spoken publicly about the episode, said she was blacklisted from leaving the UAE and faced the threat of prosecution after a March 2023 incident in which staff at a rental car agency allegedly refused to return her passport and credit cards. Her account was reported by the Daily Mail.

Allen said the case began after her then-boyfriend was arrested following a minor traffic accident for driving without a license. She told the Daily Mail she went to the rental agency to retrieve her belongings, protested when staff would not hand them over without payment, and was later accused of screaming at employees. She said she ignored an initial summons from police thinking it was a prank, and that when she later went to the station to check on her boyfriend an officer informed her there was a warrant for her arrest.

Allen said she was taken into custody, held for hours and released, but that authorities then imposed a travel ban and warned she could face up to two years in prison for the confrontation. She recounted attempting to book a flight home at the airport and being told she could not leave, and she said that much of the paperwork and proceedings were in Arabic, leaving her feeling unable to fully understand what she was signing.

For two months Allen said she lived at her boyfriend’s apartment while he remained in Al-Awir prison. After his release he lost the apartment and the couple spent several weeks moving between hotels, she said. With help from her mother in Houston, Allen said a UK-based human rights advocate, Radha Stirling, and local counsel intervened. After about three months of legal wrangling, the charges were dropped, the travel ban was lifted, and Allen’s mother paid $1,360 to recover her daughter’s passport, she said. Allen returned to the United States in late August 2023.

Stirling, who has described helping thousands of foreigners facing legal problems in the UAE, told the Daily Mail that Allen’s case reflected a pattern she has seen in which car rental disputes are used as leverage to extract money from visitors. Stirling said she has handled other cases in which detained foreigners paid large sums or required diplomatic intervention to secure release.

Allen said she feared being sent to Al-Awir, the prison where British student Mia O’Brien has been ordered to serve 25 years after UAE authorities said they found 50 grams of cocaine in her possession. O’Brien, 24, was sentenced in October 2024 and has pleaded not guilty and lodged an appeal, according to news accounts. She was also fined the equivalent of about $136,000, including an amount described as the drugs’ street value.

Human rights groups have raised concerns about Al-Awir and other detention centers in the UAE. A report last year by Human Rights Watch cited multiple accounts from former inmates describing violent assaults and sexual abuse in the facility and said rape had become an "everyday occurrence." The group’s findings have prompted calls from advocates for greater oversight of conditions and for stronger consular assistance to foreign detainees.

Stirling said diplomatic pressure can be decisive. She pointed to cases where U.S. and U.K. officials intervened and to other high-profile incidents involving foreigners who were detained after alleged drugging, theft, or confrontations. She said intervention by diplomats and advocates helped secure the release of some detainees who faced lengthy sentences or financial extortion.

Allen said the experience left her shaken and reluctant to return to Dubai. She told the Daily Mail she feared sexual assault in detention, and said the uncertainty of being unable to leave the country for months made her contemplate suicide. Her boyfriend, she said, who is African, was deported weeks before her own release.

Advocacy groups, defense lawyers and diplomats have urged that travelers to the UAE exercise caution and secure clear documentation and legal counsel if problems arise. Governments typically advise citizens traveling abroad to register with their embassies, seek consular support if detained and be aware of local laws that may differ sharply from those at home.

O’Brien’s family and supporters have called for intensive consular assistance from the U.K. government as she pursues appeals. Stirling said she was not handling O’Brien’s case but that public sympathy and pressure from the British government could be crucial to any ultimate resolution, including the possibility of a royal pardon if appeals fail.

The accounts of Allen and others highlight tensions between the UAE’s tightly enforced legal system and the experiences of foreign visitors who find themselves subject to its procedures. Human rights organizations say further transparency and independent monitoring of detention conditions are needed to ensure due process and humane treatment for all detainees.