Abu Dhabi: An inspiring gesture from a top official has motivated many officers at the Ministry of Interior to put more efforts on scientific research projects to improve their areas of work and make the UAE the safest place on earth.
Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, honoured the winners of the Interior Minister’s Award for Scientific Research at a ceremony on Monday.
Shaikh Saif honoured Dr. Nasser Salim Saif Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Award, for his contributions to the award.
About 165 researchers received the awards in six areas, including policing, police administration and human resources development, traffic and licencing, citizenship and residency, ports, Civil Defence, and penal and correctional institutions.
Senior officials including Lt. General Saif Abdullah Al Shafar, undersecretary at the Ministry of Interior, Major General Khalifa Hareb Al Khaili, Assistant Undersecretary for Naturalization and Residency Affairs at the ministry, Major General Abdullah Khalifa Al Merri, Commander-in-Chief of the Dubai Police, attended the ceremony.
Some officials shared their joy with Gulf News, of being honoured by Shaikh Saif. One of them did his research on Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS) and played a key role in implementing it at the UAE borders. Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Rahman Abdullah Al Saqaaf at investigation and detective department at the general directorate of ports and security affairs said that he had been studying about the means to stop human trafficking and use of fake travel documents since 2008. When the US implemented APIS as part of antiterrorism measures following September 11, it was proved very effective. Since the UAE implemented it, travellers with fake documents are stopped at their travel of origin. “Otherwise the government was spending a lot of money to send them back after reaching here. Now APIS helps us to detect such travellers before they board the flight to the UAE from anywhere in the world,” Al Saqaaf said.
Major Maliha Al Mazim, a training officer at the ministry, said as foreigners illegally staying in the country could pose a major security threat, she studied all possible circumstances behind it. “My research suggested many measures to prevent foreigners from turning into illegal residents,” she said.
Major Ali Ganem Al Shehhi, a doctoral student of strategic thinking and foresight at Manchester University, said his research highlighted the need of using cultural elements and foresight in strategic decision making. Cultural factors are very important in strategic matters, he said.
