If You or a Child Is Not Safe

If you or a child is in immediate danger, call the police on 999 or the ambulance service on 998 now. Those are emergency services. This page is not, and it is not a substitute for them.

This page does two things. It lists official UAE emergency and support numbers, verified against the authorities that publish them. And it explains, calmly and without overstatement, where legal advice fits alongside those services — because the two are different, and confusing them costs time when time matters.

Nothing here tells you what to do. Circumstances differ enormously, and the right sequence in one situation is the wrong sequence in another. What follows is meant to help you ask better questions of the people who can actually help.

Official emergency numbers

These are published by the UAE Government on its official portal and were re-checked on 10 September 2026. Numbers change; the official source below is authoritative, not this page.

Official support and protection lines

Every number above was taken from an official source and checked on 10 September 2026. Before relying on any of them, open the official sources listed at the end of this page and confirm the current number. If a number does not connect and the situation is urgent, call 999.

Emergency help and legal advice are different things

This distinction matters more than any other point on this page.

• Emergency services respond to immediate danger. They are contacted directly, at any hour, and they do not wait for a lawyer.
• Support and protection services provide help that a law office cannot: shelter, medical care, counselling, social work and practical assistance. They are contacted directly.
• Legal advice addresses what can be done through the courts and what the legal consequences of different steps are. It follows safety; it does not replace it.

A law office is the wrong first call when someone is in danger. It becomes the right call once safety is established and the question becomes what happens next.

Safety comes before evidence

People sometimes delay leaving a dangerous situation because they are trying to gather documents or messages first. That ordering is wrong. Safety first; records afterwards, and only when it is safe to do so.

When it is safe, the things that tend to matter later are:

• Medical records. Where there has been injury, a contemporaneous medical record made at the time is significant. Seeking medical attention is a health decision first.
• Official reports. Where a report has been made to the police or another authority, note the reference and the date.
• A dated account. Written close to events, kept somewhere safe and not accessible to the other person.
• Messages and communications, unedited. Kept in their original form rather than cropped, forwarded or annotated.
• Identity and status documents. Passports, residence documents, birth certificates and marriage records — or a note of where they are and who holds them.

Do not take risks to obtain any of this. Documents can be replaced.

Digital safety, briefly

If you are worried that your devices or accounts are being monitored, be careful how you research and who you contact from them. Where possible, use a device the other person has no access to, and be aware that browser history, shared accounts, shared location settings and cloud backups can reveal what you have been doing. Support services can advise on this properly; they deal with it constantly.

Where a lawyer fits

Once safety is established, legal advice addresses questions such as:

• which framework applies to your family circumstances, and what that means for what can be sought;
• what urgent applications may be available in your situation, and what evidence they require;
• how arrangements for children are approached where there are safety concerns;
• how your residence status, employment or travel may be affected by different steps, and in what order those steps are best taken;
• what a report to an authority does and does not set in motion;
• how to preserve the records you already have, without creating new problems.

Note the emphasis on ordering. In this area the sequence of steps often matters as much as the steps themselves, and it is the thing most easily got wrong without advice.

What this page deliberately does not say

It does not tell you whether to report, whether to leave, or whether to make an application. Those decisions belong to you, made with people who know your circumstances — a support service, a medical professional, and where appropriate a lawyer. It also does not predict what any court would do. Nobody honestly can.

If you are worried about someone else

If you believe a person or a child is in immediate danger, call 999. Where the concern is about a child, the Ministry of Interior line for violence and abuse against women and children is 116111. If the situation is not immediate, the support services listed above can advise on what is appropriate. Approaching the person directly can carry risks you may not be able to see from outside; advice from a support service first is usually the better course.

Contacting the office

If you contact us, please do so from a device and an account you are confident are private, and tell us at the outset if it is unsafe for us to reply by any particular method. Please do not send identity documents or sensitive originals in a first message. If the matter is urgent but not an emergency, say so. If it is an emergency, call 999 first.

Related guidance on this site

• Child protection in the UAE
• Urgent and interim applications
• Interim orders and urgent relief
• Preserving digital evidence in a family dispute
• Divorce and your visa
• Contact the office

Speak with Mr AlBalooshi & Team

If it is safe to do so, take advice early. Getting the order of steps right matters more than getting everything done at once.

Use the enquiry form on this page with a short outline of the matter, or contact the office on +971 50 627 5196 by telephone or WhatsApp. Please describe the position briefly rather than sending a full document set, and say if there is a hearing, a deadline or a travel date. Making an enquiry does not by itself create a lawyer–client relationship.

Preparing without escalating

Preparation and escalation are different things, and it is possible to do the first without the second. Keeping a dated record of incidents, knowing where identity documents are, having a way to reach support, and understanding what routes exist are all steps that change nothing outwardly.

That matters, because the decision about whether and when to take a formal step is one that belongs to the person affected and often depends on timing, safety and circumstances that only they can weigh. Being prepared makes that decision easier to take when the moment comes; it does not force it.

If the situation is immediate, the emergency services come first and the rest follows.

Support that is not legal

Much of what helps at this stage is not a legal service: medical care where there has been injury, a safe place to stay, help with children, and someone to talk to who is not involved in the dispute. Those are not a distraction from the legal steps; they are often what makes the legal steps possible to take.

A lawyer can work alongside them, and can explain which of the formal routes exist and what each would involve, without any obligation to start one.

Frequently asked questions

Brief overview in seven languages

Official legal references

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