Saved from death: how Abu Dhabi rescued Hajj pilgrims abandoned in the Empty Quarter


James Langton
  • English
  • Arabic

Two haunted faces stare out from the past. The man looks shocked and perhaps a little angry. The woman seems broken. Both clutch cards with names replaced by numbers and a language they almost certainly cannot read and barely understand.

Their identity cards are all that have survived. The man is 032080, the woman recorded as 036559, their real names unknown.

Both are part of a larger group of 83 men, women and children. Theirs is a familiar story, fleeing poverty and persecution only to eventually fall into the hands of people smugglers.

A Burmese Muslim man holds his ID card issued by the Burmese government. He had fled the country in 1957 hoping to perform Hajj and was rescued in Abu Dhabi.
A Burmese Muslim man holds his ID card issued by the Burmese government. He had fled the country in 1957 hoping to perform Hajj and was rescued in Abu Dhabi.

In an overcrowded boat they travelled by sea, to be dumped, unceremoniously, without food and water on a deserted and unfamiliar shore. Only by a miracle did they escape death.

It is a familiar story, but this is not 2021 and overcrowded rubber boats making their way across the English Channel or sinking in the Mediterranean from Africa. Instead it is Abu Dhabi, on the eve of Hajj 1957.

The group, mostly families, were from Burma, today officially Myanmar. They were Muslims, from villages and towns close to what is now the border of Bangladesh but was then East Pakistan.

Today, we would probably identify them as Rohingya, a stateless people whose current persecution by the Myanmar authorities is well recorded.

The miracle that spared their lives was a long range patrol by the Trucial Oman Scouts, the internal security force of British officers and Arab soldiers that kept order in the days before the creation of the United Arab Emirates.

Another two days and the officer would have found 100 corpse
Susan Hillyard,
author of 'Before the Oil'

In early May 1957, the patrol had reached Khor Al Odaid, a finger of land that stretches into the Arabian Gulf and which marks Abu Dhabi’s northern border.

As the soldiers stopped for a cigarette break, their commanding officer climbed a sand dune to take in the view. What he saw was later recorded by Susan Hillyard, a resident of Abu Dhabi at the time, for her book Before the Oil.

“Below his unbelieving eyes was a group of about 100 dark-skinned people, men, women, babies, children.

“One of the men looked up and tried to shout. The officer roared for his men to bring all the water they had. They spoke no known language, a baby had been born the day before.

“Another two days and the officer would have found 100 corpses.”

The group had been trying to reach Makkah, to perform Hajj, beginning that year on July 7. They were pilgrims, but also refugees. All the evidence suggests they had no desire to return to Burma, where, as Muslims, they were the minority and claimed to face violence from communist fighters.

Boats, including the Ruler’s personal dhow, were arranged to bring the group to Abu Dhabi, where shelter was found, including one of the town’s handful of mosques. Gradually, their story began to emerge, preserved today, more than 60 years later, in an archived file from the British government.

The group had left Burma, where they lived around Maungdow, a town across the border from Bangladesh and close to the city of Cox’s Bazaar, which today includes the Kutupelong refugee camp, home to tens of thousands of Rohingya who have fled persecution in Myanmar.

From Maungdow they crossed the border and made their way via Chittagong. Here they were able to use Burmese ID cards, rather than passports to buy tickets on the British India Line steamer Aronda for Karachi.

After spending a week in Karachi, they found another ship to take them to Dubai, where, with further negotiations, they obtained the services of a local nakhoda, or sea captain.

For a price, he agreed to take them in his dhow to Qatar, which should have been one of the safer land routes to Makkah.

Instead he landed them at Khor Al Odaid, even today one of the least populated parts of Abu Dhabi. The nakhoda was reported to have pointed inland with the words “Makkah that way. Not far.”

According to the official investigation, the group had also paid 800 rupees to “a group of scoundrels from Sind, who promised to guide them inland, but absconded in the night leaving them without food or water”.

They were left facing a 1,300 kilometre trek across the pitiless sands of Rub’ Al Khali, the Empty Quarter. The nearest Saudi Arabia city was Riyadh, 550 kilometres away. In the soaring heat of May, all would have perished in a matter of days.

The punishing sand dunes in the desert region known as the Empty Quarter, pictured in 1959. Getty Images
The punishing sand dunes in the desert region known as the Empty Quarter, pictured in 1959. Getty Images

Now safe for the moment in Abu Dhabi, their troubles were only beginning. Like many refugees today, they discovered that everyone seemed keen for them to move on somewhere else, but that no one was willing to accept them.

For Abu Dhabi, which was also caring for another 150 pilgrims whose dhow had broken down before it could reach Qatar, the influx was becoming expensive.

This was a time before oil had been discovered, and the town, with barely 2,000 inhabitants, was not the wealthy city of today. The Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan, argued, reasonably, that since Britain had taken responsibility for his country’s external affairs under a century-old treaty, the UK should pay its share of the bill.

Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan, Ruler of Abu Dhabi from 1928 to 1966, with two of his Land Rovers at Qasr Al Hosn, in 1956. The cars are flying the original flag of Abu Dhabi, which added a white corner in 1958.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan, Ruler of Abu Dhabi from 1928 to 1966, with two of his Land Rovers at Qasr Al Hosn, in 1956. The cars are flying the original flag of Abu Dhabi, which added a white corner in 1958.

London, meanwhile, felt the group should be returned home to either Burma or Pakistan at either country’s expense. Neither, though, recognised them as its citizens. Hopes that Qatar might admit them to continue to Makkah were also dashed.

Diplomatic exchanges from 1957 reveal the full extent of the problem. “As these pilgrims are destitute, the political officer in Abu Dhabi has been obliged to feed them and give them medical attention,” one dispatch complained.

It was calculated for two weeks' “minimum rations” Her Majesty’s government had spent 1,715 Gulf rupees — the local currency at that time — or 180 rupees a day, equally to £12, or £250 today, allowing for inflation.

Pakistan insisted that the group were Burmese. Burma claimed that the ID cards most carried were simply residence visas issued to foreigners.

“In the event of neither the Pakistanis nor the Burmese accepting responsibility the bill will, I imagine, remain ours,” a British official noted miserably.

Another problem was that many of the ID cards had become illegible with time, and were in a language that could not be translated locally. Still, there is enough surviving material in the files to give some indication who they were.

After translation by a former employee of the Burma Oil Company, now living in Bahrain, the man identified as 032080 was recorded on his ID card as being born in Sakhuya, a village near Maungdaw, and the woman, 036559, was from Hplekletbyin, also in Maungdaw.

Almost all the ID cards that could be read showed that the holders had, in fact, been born in Burma. Most were in family groups, and several in poor health. Within weeks, two had died, but there had also been two births.

A Muslim woman from Burma holds her ID card issued by the Burmese government. She had fled the country in 1957 hoping to perform Hajj and was rescued in Abu Dhabi.
A Muslim woman from Burma holds her ID card issued by the Burmese government. She had fled the country in 1957 hoping to perform Hajj and was rescued in Abu Dhabi.

They seem to have shown no sign of wanting to go back to Burma. After independence in 1948, the north of the country saw a bitter insurgency between the communists and the official government in Rangoon. As Muslims in a Buddhist-majority country, the pilgrims claimed to have been driven from their homes by communist fighters.

Shipping them to Pakistan was considered, but unless Pakistani citizenship could be proved, they would not be accepted, and this seemed impossible.

A plan to charter a boat to Karachi was drawn up at a cost of today's equivalent of £12,500 (Dh61,000), plus daily maintenance of £1,000. Again, no one was willing to pay up.

London tried another tack. Since Pakistan had allowed the group to travel to Dubai without passports, they were the responsibility of Karachi where they had boarded. Karachi disagreed.

By June 1957, nearly half the group had left Abu Dhabi, although it was not yet clear where they had gone.

Abu Dhabi during the 1950s. Tins of petrol are unloaded on the beach, where the Corniche is today. Courtesy: Tim Hillyard
Abu Dhabi during the 1950s. Tins of petrol are unloaded on the beach, where the Corniche is today. Courtesy: Tim Hillyard

In October, a British official travelled to Abu Dhabi, and found only one man, Amir Wazsiddin, who was working as a barber. The others, he said, had gone to Karachi and he planned to follow once he had enough money.

The huge sign of relief breathed by Britain did not last long. It emerged that the group had actually moved to Dubai, travelling overland to avoid immigration sea patrols.

They were now said to be living in Diera’s Naif district, a warren of streets surrounding a souq. “Some are beggars, others coolies. At least one has died,” a British official reported.

A month later it was rumoured that a labour shortage in Dubai meant they had earned enough money to sail to Karachi. True or not, for London the matter was officially closed.

While this was the most dramatic, there are numerous other reports of people smuggling along the Arabian Gulf during this time, particularly for the Hajj pilgrimage.

Anthony Rundell , second left, in 1960 as a squadron leader in the Trucial Oman Scouts with some of his men and their camels in Al Ain
Anthony Rundell , second left, in 1960 as a squadron leader in the Trucial Oman Scouts with some of his men and their camels in Al Ain

Anthony Rundell, who served in the Trucial Oman Scouts between 1960 and 1962, says he heard several similar cases.

“There were reports of bedraggled groups of pilgrims being put ashore west of Abu Dhabi towards Mirfa – an area then completely undeveloped except for the oil company,” he recalls.

“A group was landed with shouts from the dhow skipper of “Makkah over there” pointing to the barren desert as they set out with no food or water from the barren shore while the dhow pulled out into the Gulf.”

Death, inevitably claimed many of them, with a disregard for human life that Hillyard, for one, at first found hard to believe.

“I told you I had met the sole survivor of a party of 40 in the interior,” Martin Buckmaster, the British political agent for Abu Dhabi, told Hillyard. “But you wouldn’t believe me.”

Hajj in the 1950s

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Retail gloom

Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.

It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.

The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.

The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

 

What sanctions would be reimposed?

Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:

  • An arms embargo
  • A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
  • A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
  • A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
  • Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?

The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.

A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.

Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.

The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.

When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.

War 2

Director: Ayan Mukerji

Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana

Rating: 2/5

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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EPL's youngest
  • Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal)
    15 years, 181 days old
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Europe's top EV producers
  1. Norway (63% of cars registered in 2021)
  2. Iceland (33%)
  3. Netherlands (20%)
  4. Sweden (19%)
  5. Austria (14%)
  6. Germany (14%)
  7. Denmark (13%)
  8. Switzerland (13%)
  9. United Kingdom (12%)
  10. Luxembourg (10%)

Source: VCOe 

Uefa Nations League

League A:
Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands

League B:
Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey

League C:
Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway, Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania

League D:
Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar

Results

Stage Two:

1. Mark Cavendish (GBR) QuickStep-AlphaVinyl 04:20:45

2. Jasper Philipsen (BEL) Alpecin-Fenix

3. Pascal Ackermann (GER) UAE Team Emirates

4. Olav Kooij (NED) Jumbo-Visma

5. Arnaud Demare (FRA) Groupama-FDJ

General Classification:

1. Jasper Philipsen (BEL) Alpecin-Fenix 09:03:03

2. Dmitry Strakhov (RUS) Gazprom-Rusvelo 00:00:04

3. Mark Cavendish (GBR) QuickStep-AlphaVinyl 00:00:06

4. Sam Bennett (IRL) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:00:10

5. Pascal Ackermann (GER) UAE Team Emirates 00:00:12

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Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League, last 16, first leg

Ajax v Real Madrid, midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports

2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups

Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.

Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.

Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.

Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.

The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting

2. Prayer

3. Hajj

4. Shahada

5. Zakat 

Opening weekend Premier League fixtures

Weekend of August 10-13

Arsenal v Manchester City

Bournemouth v Cardiff City

Fulham v Crystal Palace

Huddersfield Town v Chelsea

Liverpool v West Ham United

Manchester United v Leicester City

Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur

Southampton v Burnley

Watford v Brighton & Hove Albion

Wolverhampton Wanderers v Everton

Crops that could be introduced to the UAE

1: Quinoa 

2. Bathua 

3. Amaranth 

4. Pearl and finger millet 

5. Sorghum

David Haye record

Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Neil Thomson – THE BIO

Family: I am happily married to my wife Liz and we have two children together.

Favourite music: Rock music. I started at a young age due to my father’s influence. He played in an Indian rock band The Flintstones who were once asked by Apple Records to fly over to England to perform there.

Favourite book: I constantly find myself reading The Bible.

Favourite film: The Greatest Showman.

Favourite holiday destination: I love visiting Melbourne as I have family there and it’s a wonderful place. New York at Christmas is also magical.

Favourite food: I went to boarding school so I like any cuisine really.

Milestones on the road to union

1970

October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar. 

December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.

1971

March 1:  Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.

July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.

July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.

August 6:  The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.

August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.

September 3: Qatar becomes independent.

November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.

November 29:  At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.

November 30: Despite  a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa. 

November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties

December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.

December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.

MATCH INFO

Liverpool 2 (Van Dijk 18', 24')

Brighton 1 (Dunk 79')

Red card: Alisson (Liverpool)

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Red flags
  • Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
  • Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
  • Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
  • Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
  • Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.

Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching

The low down

Producers: Uniglobe Entertainment & Vision Films

Director: Namrata Singh Gujral

Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Nargis Fakhri, Bo Derek, Candy Clark

Rating: 2/5

Biography

Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day

Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour

Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour

Best vacation: Returning home to China

Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument

Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes

Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems

Singham Again

Director: Rohit Shetty

Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone

Rating: 3/5

The rules of the road keeping cyclists safe

Cyclists must wear a helmet, arm and knee pads

Have a white front-light and a back red-light on their bike

They must place a number plate with reflective light to the back of the bike to alert road-users

Avoid carrying weights that could cause the bike to lose balance

They must cycle on designated lanes and areas and ride safe on pavements to avoid bumping into pedestrians

The biog

Favourite book: You Are the Placebo – Making your mind matter, by Dr Joe Dispenza

Hobby: Running and watching Welsh rugby

Travel destination: Cyprus in the summer

Life goals: To be an aspirational and passionate University educator, enjoy life, be healthy and be the best dad possible.

Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
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Long Shot

Director: Jonathan Levine

Starring: Charlize Theron, Seth Rogan

Four stars

Updated: July 19, 2021, 4:00 AM`